The federal government has announced a public holiday in all Pakistan on November 9 to celebrate the birth of Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal. This was stated in a notice from the Cabinet Division on Thursday.

Dr. Iqbal was born on 9 November 1877 in Sialkot and he was a famous poet, scholar, philosopher and the person who first expressed the idea of a separate nation for Muslims in 1930. This idea is also known as the two-nation theory.

Iqbal Day was celebrated as a public holiday for many years but in 2015 the interior ministry cancelled the holiday without giving a reason and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif government again made it holiday in 2022.

The notice confirmed that on Saturday 9 November 2024 will be a public holiday all over Pakistan for Allama Iqbal Day as listed in the Cabinet Division holiday calendar for 2024.

When restoring the holiday PM Shehbaz also set up a committee to organize programs in November to honor Dr Iqbal work and ideas.