Lahore High Court turns down plea for Bhagwat Singh chowk

A Pakistani court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking to rename a chowk here after Bhagat Singh, upholding instead the decision of the local corporation which cited a retired military officer who said that the freedom fighter was not a revolutionary but a “criminal”.

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The Lahore High Court Judge Shams Mehmood Mirza disposed of a petition of Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Pakistan seeking to rename Shadman Chowk Lahore after Singh and place his statue where he was hanged, a court official said.

The judge dismissed the petition after hearing arguments by counsels for the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore and the foundation.

The foundation’s chairman, Advocate Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi said it would challenge the LHC’s decision in the Supreme Court.

Earlier the corporation, which is a part of the district government of Lahore, had told the LHC in a written reply that it scrapped the plan to rename the chowk and place Bhagat Singh’s statue where he was hanged 94 years ago.

“In today’s terms he was a terrorist, he killed a British police officer, and for this crime, he was hanged along with two accomplices,” the retired officer had said in his report.