In the continuing saga of renaming Shadman Chowk after the revolutionary leader Baghat Singh, it was been revealed that the chowk will be renamed Baghat Singh Chowk after all, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources in the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) said that the chowk will be renamed after the fallen hero, as they rejected the conspiracy theories about Shadman Chowk.
Renaming the chowk had been put on hold after the Lahore High Court (LHC) extended the stay on the proposal by three weeks. The court had stopped the Punjab government from notifying a government-appointed committee’s recommendation to change the name Shadman Chowk to Bhagat Singh Chowk.
The stay was extended because the Punjab government and the City District Government Lahore failed to respond to a petition filed by Tehreek Hurmat-e-Rasool against giving the roundabout a non-Islamic name.
The court issued a stay on the name change over a petition filed by a Tehreek Hurmat-e-Rasool member.
The petition stated that it was earlier decided that the chowk would be named after Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, the man who coined the name of Pakistan. It also said that a foundation had been established in the name of Bhagat Singh and that it had, with other human rights associations, pressured the CDGL to name the chowk after him.
On November 16, LHC restrained the CDGL from renaming Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh.
Singh was hanged at the age of 23, by the British at the said chowk in 1931, for killing a British officer and for other acts aimed to rid his nation of oppression.
On the condition of anonymity, a member of the committee said that there were many hurdles in the naming of roads and chowks after minorities, adding that it was important to remember services of minorities in the Freedom Movement.
