JEDDAH, 11 November 2002 — Rich tributes were paid to eminent poet Allama Mohammad Iqbal at a function organized by the Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) at Shaheen Restaurant here on Saturday.
The function held to mark the 125th anniversary of Iqbal was presided over by Dr. Shoaib Akbar, consul welfare in the Consulate General of Pakistan, while the chief guest was Professor Francis Lamand, president of Islam and the West and organizer of international seminar on Iqbal in Cordoba in 1993.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Shoaib said Iqbal was not merely a poet but a preacher of Islamic values and ideology. His message is not limited to the Urdu-speaking Muslims of the sub-continent but people in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and even in the West know Iqbal’s message well.
Francis Lamand said Iqbal’s message is for the whole mankind. He said West is highly impressed by Iqbal’s thought and his organization Islam and the West has taken the lead in projecting Iqbal’s philosophy there.
He said he had also written a book on Iqbal in French which will be published in January 2003. It will be translated in Urdu and English later.
Referring to the issue of stranded Pakistanis he promised that his organization will take all measures to solve the problem.
He said he is trying to push authorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh to seek the settlement of the stranded Pakistanis’ issue.
Lamand said that “we should not remain indifferent to this long-outstanding humanitarian issue.”
Naseem Sahar, a poet and scholar read his paper on “Iqbal’s philosophy of Islamic revival in our society”.
Ehsanul Haque, the PRC convener, said that Iqbal had envisioned a state for the Muslims of the subcontinent which was later created by Muslim leaders led by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
He regretted that those patriotic Pakistanis who sacrificed everything for Pakistan in 1971 are living in a miserable condition in Bangladesh
Ehsan said the PRC would contact the next civilian government in Pakistan and push for the repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis. He reiterated that the PRC proposal envisaging the repatriation of the stranded people on self-help basis could be a feasible proposition for the solution of the long-standing problem.
Farhan Siddiqui of the Muslim Welfare Organization appealed to people here for helping the stranded Pakistanis through their Zakah and Sadaqa.
Poets Habib Siddiqui, Abdul Qayyum Wasiq, Ahmed Saood Qasmi and Syed Mohsin Alavi recited their poems to pay tributes to Iqbal.
