Lahore: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, emphasisng that ‘Ego’ and
‘Faith’ are our most precious assets has said that we should not allow
our ideology to become outdated and stagnant in a fast-changing world.
Addressing
the Iqbal Award Ceremony PM said our nation in the past was not
provided with conducive and enabling environment to grow and realize its
potential starts. Consequently, conviction dwindled and our national
resolve became weak and we could not manage to rise up to those lofty
ideals which impart strength and motivation to national life.
Even
in this suffocating situation of despair, Iqbal serves as a beacon of
light and harbinger of hope because his message draws its life from
faith.
PM said Pakistani nation is highly capable, talented and
blessed with unique dynamism and determination to surmount any
challenge. It has proven its mettle time and again and did not hesitate
to offer any sacrifice.
“The day is not far when our great nation would emerge again with renewed vigour and energy”, he said.
If
we want the reconstruction of our nation along spiritual, moral,
economic, cultural and civilization, we have no other option but to
continue with the process of law-making, make newly emerging dimensions
of life the subject of our Islamic legal thinking and leave its approval
and execution to the elected institutions of state.
PM said if
we had implemented in letter and spirit two facets of Iqbal’s thought
‘Ijtihad’ or reconstruction of religious thought and second is concept
of spiritual democracy, Pakistan would have been counted among the
developed world.
He said today, we are faced with a plethora of
problems such as terrorism, extremism, poverty, unemployment and social
injustice. We can overcome these if we invoke our latent qualities,
revive our faith in ourselves and make a fresh resolve. These are
passing crises and we must not allow them to force us into submission.
Our most precious asset is our national ego and faith.
Every effort made to spread Iqbal’s message is an effort at nation-building, PM said.
Commending the Iqbal Academy for its commendable efforts PM announced to enhance the all important Iqbal Award program
“From
now on, another Award is being added to the series namely
“Nishan-i-Iqbal– The Lifetime Achievement Award”. It will be awarded to
those scholars who have rendered outstanding meritorious services in the
domain of Iqbal Studies. I am also glad to announce two Gold Medals.
From the next year the students who stand first in the Departments of
Philosophy of the University of the Punjab and the GC University will
receive this Iqbal Medal from the Academy”, PM announced.
PM also announced a grant of Rs 50 million for the academy. Online
