A plan by Lahore’s metropolis district authorities to rename Shadman’s Fawara Chowk as Bhagat Singh Chowk has been shelved following objections from a retired army officer, based on official paperwork submitted to the Lahore Excessive Courtroom (LHC), Daybreak experiences. The report, cited by Daybreak, comes from the Metropolitan Company of Lahore, which particulars that the Dilkash Lahore Committee, on December 5, 2012, proposed renaming numerous roads, chowks, and underpasses within the metropolis, together with altering Fawara Chowk Shadman to Bhagat Singh Chowk. Following this determination, a authorities commercial sought public suggestions on the proposal.
Nevertheless, some objections surfaced, main the Bhagat Singh Memorial Basis to file a writ petition within the LHC, asking to proceed with the renaming. In 2018, the court docket directed the federal government to handle the muse’s software consistent with authorized requirement, the report mentioned.
Paperwork now submitted to the court docket, as reported by Daybreak, point out that retired Commodore Tariq Majeed intervened, submitting an “consciousness” temporary to the federal government in response to the muse’s petition. He dismissed Bhagat Singh’s legacy, describing him as a “felony” slightly than a freedom fighter.
Majeed argued that Singh’s picture as a revolutionary relies on a “solid story” and asserted that Singh’s actions—particularly, his function within the killing of a British police officer—disqualify him as a freedom hero. Based on Majeed, Bhagat Singh was “an enemy of Pakistan’s Islamic ideology” and had no function within the freedom wrestle of the subcontinent.
The veteran additionally prompt that the Bhagat Singh Memorial Basis is working in opposition to Pakistan’s ideology, urging the federal government to ban it for selling “pretend” propaganda. He argued that if the LHC had sought correct historic particulars, the muse’s petition would have been dismissed outright.
These remarks have been connected to the official paperwork submitted to the LHC on Friday, in response to a contempt petition filed by the muse’s chairman, Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi. Qureshi seeks contempt proceedings in opposition to the Punjab chief secretary for not appearing on the 2018 court docket directive to course of the renaming request.
Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza has adjourned the listening to till January 17, 2025, as a result of absence of the petitioner’s counsel. In the meantime, town district authorities, counting on the veteran’s assertion, has requested the court docket to dismiss the contempt petition.
As per media experiences initially cited by Daybreak, then-District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal initially directed town authorities in September 2012 to rename Shadman Chowk as Bhagat Singh Chowk, a choice that now stays mired in authorized and ideological controversy.
