{"id":135974,"date":"2026-11-05T19:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T14:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=135974"},"modified":"2026-11-05T19:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T14:25:19","slug":"govt-announces-public-holiday-on-nov-9-to-mark-iqbal-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/135974\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt announces public holiday on Nov 9 to mark Iqbal Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The government has declared Nov 9 (Monday) a public holiday to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal, according to a press release by the Cabinet Division issued on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMonday, Nov 9, shall be a public holiday throughout the country on the occasion of Allama Iqbal Day,\u201d the press release said, referring to a circular issued in January by the Cabinet Division listing public and optional holidays for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has also declared a closure on Monday in light of the holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Sindh government also announced on Wednesday that all public and private schools across the province would remain closed on Nov 9 to mark the 149th birth anniversary of Iqbal, the national poet of Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born in Sialkot in 1877, Iqbal was a distinguished poet, a scholar, a gifted philosopher and Pakistan\u2019s ideological founder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was at the Allahabad session of the Muslim League in 1930 that Iqbal became the first politician to articulate the two-nation theory that ultimately led to the creation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iqbal Day was on the calendar of national public holidays for decades, but the interior ministry, through a circular issued on November 4, 2015, announced the cancellation of the day as an annual holiday without specifying a reason. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s government restored the holiday in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The government has declared Nov 9 (Monday) a public holiday to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal, according to a press release by the Cabinet Division issued on Thursday. \u201cMonday, Nov 9, shall be a public holiday throughout the country on the occasion of Allama Iqbal Day,\u201d the press release [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Govt announces public holiday on Nov 9 to mark Iqbal Day - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/135974\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Govt announces public holiday on Nov 9 to mark Iqbal Day - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The government has declared Nov 9 (Monday) a public holiday to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal, according to a press release by the Cabinet Division issued on Thursday. \u201cMonday, Nov 9, shall be a public holiday throughout the country on the occasion of Allama Iqbal Day,\u201d the press release [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/135974\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-05T14:25:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-11-05T14:25:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/image-670x370-13-4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/135974\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/135974\/\",\"name\":\"Govt announces public holiday on Nov 9 to mark Iqbal Day - 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