ISLAMABAD: Senate passed a unanimous resolution on Wednesday to restore the national annual holiday on November 9—to commemorate the birth of Pakistan’s national poet Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

Senator Kamil Ali Agha from Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), a ruling coalition partner, presented the related resolution in the Senate sitting.

Speaking on the floor of the House, Agha paid homage to Allama Iqbal.

“It was his revolutionary poetry that revived the spirit of nationalism in the Muslims of the subcontinent and paved way for the creation of a separate homeland for us—in the form of Pakistan,” he said.

The PML-Q senator said November 9 was celebrated as Iqbal Day, marked with a national holiday, before the former government abolished this holiday.

It merits a mention here that during the tenure of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) in power, the Interior Ministry, through a circular issued on November 4, 2015, announced to cancel Iqbal Day November 9 annual holiday without specifying any reason.

The present government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has not yet restored this holiday.

The PML-Q senator demanded that the federal government review this policy and immediately restore Iqbal Day holiday. “This is the least we can do to pay profound homage to our great national poet,” he said.

However, Maula Bakhsh Chandio from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) disagreed. “We totally respect this resolution but I don’t think holidays should be observed on the basis of provincialism,” he said.

Chandio believed Allama Iqbal “was a poet of Punjab while Senate is a representative of the federation. It is not appropriate to declare holiday across Pakistan by attributing it to a poet of one province.”

The senators remarks raised eyebrows but he continued, “Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai is a great poet of Sindh. If national holiday is restored for Iqbal Day then national holiday should also be given for Bhitai,” he added.

However, the PPP senator’s logic did not go down well with many as senators said that Iqbal is Pakistan’s national poet, not of one province.

Later, the House unanimously passed the resolution.

Chairman Senate referred the resolution to federal cabinet/government, and observed that the reply from cabinet/government be furnished before the Senate.

Meanwhile, in the question hour, Railways Minister Azam Swati said Karachi Circular Railway Project would expectedly be operational by the end of 2023 and it would facilitate around 500,000 travellers.

Parliamentary Affairs State Minister Ali Muhammad Khan said a robust mechanism is in place for the security of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and Chinese nationals in Pakistan.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority is completely operational, he said.

Information State Minister Farrukh Habib claimed that present government not only stemmed financial losses in Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) but also “turned it into a profit-earning entity.”

He said, “When the PTI government came into power in 2018, the PTV’s losses stood at Rs 451 million. In the last three years, we took corrective measures and made timely interventions to improve performance of the state-run television. Now, it is in profit of Rs 1.3 billion,” he said, while responding to a supplementary question.

In his written reply to a question, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid informed the House that revision of Islamabad’s Master Plan was underway.

The House would meet again Friday morning.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021