The 146th birth anniversary of Allama Iqbal is being observed with national respect today (Thursday). A public holiday has been declared across the country to mark the occasion.

The day was marked by a ceremony at the national poet’s mausoleum in Lahore, where guards from Pakistan Navy replaced the Punjab Rangers for duty.

Iqbal was born in Sialkot on November 9, 1877 and died in Lahore on April 21, 1938 in Lahore.

He travelled to England in 1905 and studied at Trinity College at Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn. Later he gained a PhD in philosophy from University of Munich.

Apart from writing a poetry in both Urdu and Persian, he worked as a lawyer but also took a keen interest in politics after his return to India in 1910.

As a member of the Muslim League he chaired the party’s session in Allahabad in 1930 where he provided a lasting vision for Muslims in India that led to the creation of Pakistan.

However, the poet and thinker did not live to see his dream come true, passing away nine years before Pakistan gained independence.