JEDDAH: THe Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) observed the 78th death anniversary of Pakistan’s thinker, poet and philosopher Allama Iqbal.

Former Saudi diplomat Ali Al-Ghamdi presided over the event. Other guests included Khursheed Ahmed, Tariq Cheema of King Abdul Aziz University, Mohammed Khalid Jawed of Pakistan Engineers Society, Mohammed Tayyab Mosani of Pakistan Memon Association, Maqboolur Rahman Abbasi of Pakistan Journalists Forum, Syed Naseeruddin, Wasi Imam, Aslam Tanweer, Owais Akram and Altafur Rahman of Engineers Welfare Forum (EWF).

Others included Haroon Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Zubair, Mohammed Luqman, Shamsuddin Altaf and Agha Mohammad Akram and other literary and community members.

Al-Ghamdi in his address said Iqbal’s message was not limited to Muslims of the subcontinent alone; the entire Muslim world could benefit from his poetry and philosophy.

Usman Ameen of Cairo University compared Iqbal with great reformers like Jamaluddin Afghani, Abdul Rahman Kawkabi of Syria and Mohammed Abdou of Egypt and said that Iqbal was a much stronger reformer than them as his message created a revolution among the Muslims of India, which resulted in the establishment of Pakistan.

“It is unfortunate that in Iqbal’s Pakistan over a quarter million patriotic Pakistanis continue to remain stranded in Bangladesh for 45 years. I appeal to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to fulfil his promise of settling them in Pakistan,” he said.

Member of Kashmir Committee and Overseas Pakistani Journalists Forum General Secretary Choudhry Riaz Ghumman thanked Al-Ghamdi for advocating the cause of Kashmiris and stranded Pakistanis.