Mashallah. Life carrying on as usual for people of Pakistan.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=79957
Iqbal Day celebrated with zeal
Saturday, November 10, 2007
ISLAMABAD: The nation celebrated the 130th birth anniversary of poet-philosopher Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal on Friday with zeal. The government had announced the day as holiday and all government offices and educational institutions remained closed. However, schools and colleges arranged different programmes to highlight the life of Allama Iqbal. Similarly, social, cultural and literary organisations chalked out different programmes to pay glowing tributes to the Poet of the East, who had visualized a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Sub-continent.
The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) arranged a programme in which prominent literary, social and political figures highlighted the person of Allama Iqbal. The Institute of Folk Heritage, Islamabad, organised a folk Mela at the institute. The National Council of Arts is celebrating the Iqbal Week.
The day-long programmes started with special prayers in mosques for solidarity, unity and prosperity of the country and for the early liberation of the occupied Kashmir. Fateha and Qur’aan Khawani were held at mosques and the Mazar-i-Iqbal. Special events were arranged to highlight the great poet’s life and his services to the nation. Print and electronic media published and broadcast special programmes on the life, ideas and achievements of Allama Iqbal.
A change of guards ceremony was held at the Mazar of Allama Iqbal, which was visited by a large number of people, who also offered Fateha there. Allama Iqbal, whose forefathers belonged to Jammu and Kashmir, was born in Sialkot on Nov 9, 1877.
Iqbal’s thought-provoking poetry has been an inspiration for many and he has been admired throughout the Sub-continent. He promoted ideals of brotherhood, justice and service among the Muslims. He died in Lahore on April 21, 1938.
People belonging to various walks of life including students and senior citizens visited the Iqbal Manzil, the birthplace of Allama Iqbal, in Sialkot in large numbers. The Iqbal Manzil was profusely illuminated with colourful lights and larger-than-life portraits of Allama Iqbal. A procession headed by the Tehsil Nazim, Sialkot, Imtiaz-ud-din Dar, started from the Iqbal Manzil. The participants, including elected representatives, journalists, government officers and a number of others, walked to the city graveyard to offer Fateha at the last resting abodes of the parents of Allama Iqbal. Tehsil Nazim Sialkot, on behalf of the citizens, laid wreaths at the graves and offered Fateha