PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has announced to observe public holiday across the province on Monday, November 9, to mark the birth anniversary of national poet and philosopher Allama Mohammad Iqbal, DawnNews reported on Saturday.

According to details, the KP government declared that it will observe ‘Iqbal Day’ across the province on Monday and a public holiday will be observed on that day.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Chairman Imran Khan had requested KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to declare November 9, Iqbal Day, as public holiday in the province.

Imran said while he disapproves of the excessive number of holidays that we have in the country, Iqbal Day is an exceptionally special day for Pakistan.

“Iqbal's thought embodies the ideology, the nazriya, of Pakistan.”

It is extremely important, Imran felt, for coming generations to remember and follow the message of Allama Iqbal so that Pakistan's ideological moorings keep strengthening.

"Nations without a nazriya die," Imran asserted, adding that "we must ensure that Iqbal's thought is passed on to our future generations”.

Dictators have always sought to make people forget the message of Iqbal to weaken the nation's ideological foundations but we are committed to ensuring that Iqbal and his ideological foundations for Pakistan remain strongly entrenched in each generation, the PTI chief maintained.