Notice to Pak Punjab over chowk after Bhagat Singh

Lahore, March 4

A Pakistani court on Monday issued notices to the Punjab provincial government and the district administration on a petition seeking contempt proceedings against three top officials for not complying with the court’s order regarding naming the Shadman Chowk in Lahore after Indian Independence war hero Bhagat Singh.

Lahore High Court Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza issued notices to Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Lahore Deputy Commissioner Rafia Haider and the city administrator on the petition filed by the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation, Pakistan.

“The HC issued the notices to the respondents for submitting a reply on the contempt petition for their failure to name the Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh by March 26,” Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi, chairman of the foundation, said after the hearing.

Qureshi said the HC in 2018 had ordered the government to name Shadman Chowk, the place where Bhagat Singh was hanged in 1931, after the freedom fighter.

“But both the provincial and district governments deliberately did not comply with the High Court’s order, thus committing contempt,” he said.