Special committee formed to promote, disseminate Iqbal’s message to youth

First meeting of newly constituted Board of Governors (BoG) of Iqbal Academy of Pakistan held

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH), Irfan Siddiqui on Wednesday formed a special committee titled ‘Farogh-i-Fikr-i-Iqbal’ to devise a comprehensive plan for promoting  messages of Allama Muhammad Iqbal among youth.

Presiding over the first meeting of newly constituted Board of Governors (BoG) of Iqbal Academy of Pakistan (IAP), Siddiqui said the committee’s renowned expert, Rafiuddin Hashmi, will decide how different mediums including drama, film and songs could be vitally used for disseminating Iqbal's message among young generation.

The BoG 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 members of BoG also appreciated the efforts of Siddiqui, Federal Secretary of NH&LH Division Aamir Hasan and director IAP for successfully organising 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 experts on Iqbal from Balochistan also. 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 messages. Ministry of foreign affairs will be approached to assist 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, Aamir Hasan and other staff for revitalising the 12 institutions working under the division. He said arrangement of Iqbal Conference after 16 years' gap is a big achievement which should be continued without any disruption.

Siddiqui said the division had resolved the issue of funds shortage of literary activities through establishing an endowment fund worth Rs 500 million. Siddiqui 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. He hoped that their guidance and recommendations would help Iqbal Academy to pursue its mission of promotion Iqbal's works and messages among younger generation.

Federal Secretary Aamir Hasan thanked the adviser on behalf of the division and said he had rendered a big contribution for uplifting literature in the country through reviving all the literary institutions of the division in a creative way. IAP Director Muhammad Baksh Sangi briefed the members about performance, budget and different projects of the academy.  

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2018.