ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced a public holiday on November 9 to mark the birth anniversary of Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the national poet of Pakistan, a notification issued by the cabinet division said on Thursday. Born on November 9, 1877, in Sialkot, Iqbal was a distinguished poet, a scholar, a gifted philosopher, and Pakistan’s ideological founder. Iqbal Day was on the calendar of national public holidays for decades, but the interior ministry, through a circular on November 4, 2015, announced the cancellation of the holiday without specifying a reason. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government restored the holiday in 2022. “As notified vide Cabinet Division’s circular No. 10-02/2023-MM-II dated 20th December 2023, listing Public and Optional Holidays for the year 2024, Saturday, November 9, 2024, shall be a public holiday throughout the country on the occasion of Allama Iqbal Day,” the notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com read.