The nation would mark the 145th birth anniversary of great philosopher and poet, Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal today (Wednesday). The federal government on Tuesday announced November 9 as a public holiday, in connection with the birth anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal. A notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said, “The Prime Minister has been pleased to desire that 9th November (Iqbal Day) shall henceforth be observed as a public holiday”. The world-famed Poet of the East was born on November 9, 1877, in a middle-class family in Kashmiri Mohallah, an ancient densely-populated locality of Sialkot city. The day would be marked with special prayers in mosques for the solidarity, integrity and prosperity of Pakistan and the freedom of all the Muslim homelands including occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine. Various cultural, political and social organizations held meetings and seminars in various parts of the liberated territory to highlight the services rendered by the great visionary leader of the 20th century.