Plan to rename Lahore's chowk after Bhagat Singh scrapped

A plan to rename Shadman Chowk in Lahore city after Bhagat Singh and install his statue there has been scrapped in light of an opinion by a retired military official, the district government of the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province has told the high court here.

In a written response submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday by Assistant Advocate General Asghar Leghari, serious allegations were levelled against the freedom fighter.

"A proposed plan of the city district government Lahore to name Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh and place his statue there has been scrapped in light of an observation submitted by Commodore Tariq Majeed (retd)," the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore said in a reply to a contempt petition filed by Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Pakistan Chairman Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi in the LHC.

It said Majeed, engaged by the government in a committee to rename Shadman Chowk after Singh, in his observations claimed that Singh "was not a revolutionary but a criminal, in today's terms he was a terrorist, he killed a British police officer, and for this crime, he, along with two accomplices, was hanged".

Majeed recommended to the government that the Shadman Chowk must not be named Bhagat Singh Chowk and his statue should not be installed there.

The report further says Singh was influenced by "religious leaders hostile to Muslims and the NGO -- Bhagat Singh Foundation -- is working against Islamic ideology and Pakistani culture, (and) it should be banned".

"Don't the officials of the foundation, who call themselves Muslims, know that it is not acceptable to name a place after an atheist in Pakistan and that Islam prohibits human statues?" it asked.

In response to the report, Qureshi told PTI on Sunday that Bhagat Singh was declared a great revolutionary, freedom fighter and martyr undisputedly.

"I will send a legal notice to retired Commodore Majeed for levelling serious allegations against the Bhagat Singh Foundation and contest his stance on Bhagat Singh," he said.

Qureshi has made the district government, DC Lahore, Chief Secretary Punjab and Administrator City District Government parties in a contempt of court petition filed through advocate Khalid Zaman Khan Kakar, in which it was said that LHC Justice Shahid Jamil Khan had issued instructions to the authorities concerned on September 5, 2018, to take steps to name Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh, but the court order has not been implemented yet.

LHC Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza adjourned the hearing of the contempt plea until January 17, 2025, due to the unavailability of the petitioner's counsel.