Pakistan Announces Public Holiday on November 9 for Iqbal Day

The government has declared Monday, November 9, a public holiday across Pakistan. The day marks the birth anniversary of Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

The Cabinet Division issued the notification on Thursday. It states, “Monday, Nov 9, shall be a public holiday throughout the country on the occasion of Allama Iqbal Day.” This follows a circular the Cabinet Division issued in January, which listed the year’s public and optional holidays.

Punjab’s provincial government has also announced Nov 9 as a public holiday. On Wednesday, the Sindh government said all public and private schools in the province will stay closed that day. This marks Iqbal’s 149th birth anniversary.

The State Bank of Pakistan has also announced a closure for Monday because of the holiday.

Iqbal was born in Sialkot in 1877. He was a poet, scholar, and philosopher, and is regarded as Pakistan’s ideological founder.

At the 1930 Allahabad session of the Muslim League, Iqbal became the first politician to put forward the two-nation theory. That idea later led to the creation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947.