President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid rich tribute to national poet and philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal on Sunday, on the occasion of Iqbal Day and his 149th birth anniversary. The prime minister also announced that the government will launch year-long celebrations leading up to the 150th anniversary of Iqbal's birth on 9 November next year, the Islamabad Post reported.

In special messages issued for the day, the president and the prime minister described Iqbal as a visionary philosopher, statesman and intellectual whose ideas awakened political consciousness among the Muslims of the subcontinent and helped shape the movement for an independent homeland.

A year of events until November 2027

Announcing the initiative, Shehbaz Sharif said the government would formally launch a year-long programme of national and international events to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Allama Iqbal. The celebrations will continue until 9 November next year and will include international conferences, academic and research seminars, literary festivals, exhibitions, educational competitions and cultural activities.

Acting President Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani also issued a message for the occasion, urging the nation to renew its commitment to Iqbal's teachings and to work for the unity, peace and prosperity of Pakistan.

Iqbal Day is observed every year on 9 November, the anniversary of Iqbal's birth in Sialkot in 1877. The federal government has declared Monday 9 November a nationwide public holiday, with government offices, educational institutions and banks closed for the day.

Why Iqbal still matters

Born in 1877 and passing away in Lahore in 1938, Iqbal is remembered as the Poet of the East and the ideological force behind the demand for a separate homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent. His poetry and prose, in Urdu and Persian, called on Muslims to reclaim self-respect, knowledge and political purpose, and his ideas were later carried into the Pakistan Movement under Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Successive governments have marked Iqbal Day with official ceremonies, including a change of guard at his mausoleum in Lahore. The year-long programme announced on Sunday is the most ambitious commemoration yet planned, stretching the observance from a single day into twelve months of conferences, seminars and cultural events at home and abroad. Its aim, as set out by the prime minister, is to carry Iqbal's message to a new generation and to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth with the scale the occasion deserves.

Iqbal wrote in both Urdu and Persian. Among his best-known works are the Urdu collection Bang-e-Dara, the philosophical poem Asrar-e-Khudi, published in English as The Secrets of the Self, and his Persian masterpiece Javid Nama. His verses remain part of everyday life in Pakistan, quoted in classrooms, in political speeches and at public ceremonies, and his mausoleum beside the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore draws visitors throughout the year.