The government appears to be on a drive to efface the names of country’s founding fathers from the public memory by replacing them with ones from the colonial times on traffic direction boards on the provincial capital’s main arteries.
Lahore’s main arteries were named after the founding fathers to pay tribute to their efforts in the Pakistan Movement. The contributions of Quaid-e-Azam, Fatima Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, the Ali brothers, Hameed Nizami and many eminent personalities were acknowledged by naming several main and service roads and buildings after them.
The Mall was named Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Queen’s Road as Shahray-e-Fatima Jinnah and Temple Road after prominent Pakistan Movement leader and the founder of Nawa-i-Waqt Group, Hameed Nizami, among various other roads.
However, in a survey of various major roads, Pakistan Today observed that the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has installed direction signposts mentioning the roads with their names from colonial times in complete ignorance of their own record.
The signpost installed at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Chowk, for example, shows directions towards the Mall, Temple Road and Shahray-e-Majeed Nizami (recently changed from Lawrence Road), clearly showing a drive to wipe out the names of the founding fathers from the public memory.
Interestingly, however, the actual roads still carry the signposts with the names of these important personalities, again showing a lack of planning and coordination on the part of officials concerned.
Last year, the government carried out a massive drive to rename various city roads, assigning names to underpasses along the canal. Among the many names were Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Professor Waris Mir, Chakar-e-Azam Rind, Justice Cornelius and Chaudhry Rehmat Ali.
Although a committee was constituted for the task, experts believe that the way names were assigned, show “haphazardness”.
Talking to Pakistan Today, renowned historian Dr Mubarik Ali said, “The government’s recent drive to name city roads and underpasses has been without a plan. Naming roads after people reflects the way their memory is preserved and passed on to next generations. This is also done through constructing buildings. However, changing road names is not enough for getting rid of the colonial burden, their institutions and education system need be reformed as well.”
A MISTAKE?
A CDGL spokesperson however said that the government has no such plan for “forgetting” the founding fathers and termed it a “mistake” by the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA).
“Installing signposts on the road is the duty of the CDGL, while the ones on approaching roads come under TEPA’s purview. This is a mistake and has been noticed as well. The DCO has held a meeting on the matter and an order for the new signposts has also been placed, which will be ready and installed by the start of next week,” the spokesperson added.
