Lahore MC rejects proposal to rename chowk after Bhagat Singh

The Metropolitan Corporation Lahore (MC Lahore) has formally rejected the demand to rename Fawara Chowk in Shadman as Bhagat Singh Chowk. This decision came during the hearing of a contempt petition on Friday, filed for not following a 2018 High Court directive on the matter.

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Samia Khalid, Additional Advocate General, presented the order passed by the MC Lahore in response to the petition. Sayed Musa Raza, the Administrator of MC Lahore, issued a two-page order on December 26, stating that after reviewing the relevant rules under Punjab Local Councils Road and Street Rules, 1981, the request was deemed “devoid of merit” and thus rejected.

Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi, chairman of the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Pakistan, who had submitted the petition, argued that the Punjab government had recently opened the Bhagat Singh Gallery at the historical Poonch House in Lahore, which houses documents and artefacts related to the freedom fighter’s trial. He questioned the inconsistency in the state’s stance, particularly as the gallery had been inaugurated by Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman on December 30.

Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi also raised concerns over the derogatory remarks made by Commodore Tariq Majid PN (Retd), Chief Public Relations Officer of MC Lahore, in his report opposing the renaming, which included offensive statements about Bhagat Singh and defamatory comments about the petitioner and his late father.

Following the rejection, Qureshi stated that a meeting will be scheduled soon to discuss the High Court’s order, which has disposed of the contempt petition.