EDITORIAL: The restoration of holiday on Iqbal Day, that is November 9, by the federal government and was also followed by all provinces.
However, what surprised many is the late announcement of this decision. By almost noon there was no indication that next day would be national holiday in deference to national poet Allama Iqbal. But then came along the PM Office’s communication, followed by a notification from the Cabinet Division, officially restoring the “public holiday on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Allama Iqbal”.
As this announcement came in so abruptly, a slight air of panic set in, affecting the working of banks, hospitals and educational institutions that had planned Wednesday as a regular working day.
Even the newspapers were taken by surprise. The dailies, against the practice, could not publish special supplements highlighting historic contributions of Allama Iqbal to the creation of Pakistan.
What prompted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to come up so suddenly with the idea of restoring holiday on Allama Iqbal’s 145th birth anniversary day one has to conjecture, except for recalling an event that took place in 2015. If Imran Khan differs with the Sharif brothers now he was intolerant of their thinking and decision-making then also.
So, his party-run Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province observed the Iqbal Day as a public holiday, unlike the federal government and other three provinces, who in compliance with a notification of interior ministry, did not.
“While I disapprove of too many holidays, Iqbal Day is different from other days. Iqbal’s thought embodies the ideology of Pakistan”, he said in justification of his decision. On that very day Shehbaz Sharif had kept his government’s door open, and so did Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Dr Malik Baloch in Sindh and Balochistan, respectively. Is it then that Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister did not want to earn IK’s scorn which he did as chief minister seven years ago?
Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif constituted a committee to highlight the work of the national poet for the month of November. The committee, headed by Senator Irfan Siddiqui, has been tasked to complete that work within three days.
One would like to know, what’s it that people of Pakistan do not know about the poet’s life and work, and will now know courtesy the hard work of the Senator Siddiqui-headed body in next three days? Hurry spoils curry, and so this late announcement and its follow-up to be handled by the committee would do to the government’s commitment to the life and work of Allama Iqbal.
This tends to expose the hollowness of the federal government’s day in, day out pronouncements and pledges to pull the country out of the deep mire in which it is presently trapped. A complete shutdown is out of question.
The national holidays calendar should be announced at the beginning of the year, as should have been the case about Allama Iqbal’s birth anniversary also and not the way it has been done.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.