The 9th November is the day to exhort the nation :Pervaiz Rashid

Lahore: Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid Monday said the 9th November  is the day to exhort the nation to action being the birth anniversary of  Allama Muhammad Iqbal whose poetry embodies the message of action and continuous struggle.

He was addressing the “Youm-e-Iqbal” ceremony here under the auspices of Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex to commemorate the birth anniversary of Poet of the East who had conceived the idea of a separate homeland for Muslims of the Sub-continent.

He said that action was the most vital ingredient of Allama Iqbal’s poetry. Abundance of poetic allusions in Iqbal’s poetry was enough to  prove that he was poet of action and not thought only.

The Information Minister said that inaction and lethargy could not be the message of the “Dreamer of Pakistan”, Iqbal, whose poetry personifies action. A public holiday deprives the nation of Iqbal’s vision of waging continuous struggle to conquer mind and thought of the world, he added.

“November 9 is the day to convey Iqbal’s message of action, acquiring knowledge and searching new vistas of science and technology to the children,” Pervaiz Rashid said.

He said it was the need of the hour to work extra hours as Pakistan lagged behind others in the field of science and technology. Muslims were inheritors of the fountainheads of knowledge and wisdom, but “we have not been able to take as much advantage of the boons.”

The minister said,”We, as a nation, should be sleepless and work more; rest a little and traverse more in order to rub shoulders with the nations which have benefitted from the philosophy and poetry of Allama Dr Muhammad Iqbal.”

Pervaiz Rashid said that there might be difference of opinion on the point of a public holiday or no holiday, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Iqbal, but both groups had one purpose – to disseminate the message of Iqbal to the younger generations.

He said the educational institutions had been kept open on 9th November in order to apprise the children of the universal  message of Iqbal, his thought and philosophy.

Punjab Governor Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, Jamaat Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq, Allama Iqbal’s grandson Muneeb Iqbal, writers, intellectuals and senior journalists including Sajjad Mir, Auriya Maqbool Jan, Mujeeb ur Rehman Shami and Chairman Aiwan e Iqbal Complex Arif Nizami also spoke on the occasion.