Advisor to Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage Irfan Siddiqui Wednesday formed a special committee titled ‘Farogh-i-Fiqr-i-Iqbal’ to devise a comprehensive plan for promoting the message of Allama Iqbal among youth. Presiding over the first meeting of the newly constituted Board of Governors of the Iqbal Academy of Pakistan (IAP), Siddiqui said renowned expert Rafi ud Din Hashmi will decide how different mediums including drama, film and songs could be vitally used for disseminating Iqbal’s message among the young generation. The meeting approved the budget for the year 2018-19 and future projects of the academy and decided to hold Iqbal conference once a year. The board members appreciated the efforts of the administration in successfully organizing Iqbal conference recently and said launch of mobile application of ‘Kalam-i-Iqbal’ and its deluxe edition are excellent initiatives. The meeting unanimously decided to nominate renowned expert on Iqbal from Balochistan Abdul Rauf Rafiqui as Iqbal Ambassador for Afghanistan, Central Asian States and Turkey. Rafiqui was given responsibility to suggest steps for arranging conferences and other literary activities in these areas to promote Iqbal’s message. Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also be approached for assistance in this regard. The meeting also formed a committee for conducting translation of Kalam-i-Iqbal from Persian to Urdu language. Speaking on the occasion, Siddiqui appreciated the cooperation and performance of Federal Secretary Engineer Aamir Hasan and other staff for revitalizing the 12 institutions working under the division. He said arrangement of Iqbal conference after a gap of 16 years was a big achievement which should be continued without any disruption. Siddiqui said the division had resolved the issue of funds shortage for literary activities through establishing an endowment fund worth Rs 500 million. He welcomed the newly appointed members of BoG including Professor Ahsan Akbar, Professor Jalil Aali, Dr Fatima Hassan, Dr Rubina Shaheen, Abdur Rauf Rafiqui, Vice President Shahzad Qaiser and Treasurer Muhammad Shafi. Published in Daily Times, May 24th 2018.