Pak court dismisses plea seeking to rename Shadman Chowk Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh

Independence war hero Bhagat Singh

A Pakistani court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking to rename Shadman Chowk Lahore after independence war hero Bhagat Singh and place his statue there.

”Lahore High Court Judge Shams Mehmood Mirza today disposed of a petition of Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Pakistan seeking renaming of Shadman Chowk Lahore after Bhagat Singh and placing his statue where he was hanged,” a court official told PTI.

The judge after hearing arguments from counsels for the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore and the foundation dismissed the petition. 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 that it scrapped the proposed plan to name Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh and place his statue there where he was hanged 94 years ago.

”A proposed plan of the city district government Lahore to name Shadman Chowk Lahore after Bhagat Singh and place his statue there has been scrapped in light of an observation submitted by Commodore (R) Tariq Majeed,” the metropolitan corporation had said in the court in its written reply. Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi had made the district government, Deputy Commissioner Lahore, Chief Secretary Punjab and Administrator City District Government parties in contempt of court petition 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 Jan 17 due to the unavailability of the petitioner’s counsel. Bhagat Singh, 23, was hanged to death by British rulers on March 23, 1931, in Lahore, after being tried under charges for hatching a conspiracy against the colonial government. A case was filed against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru for allegedly killing British police officer John P Saunders. Sukhdev and Rajguru were also hanged to death by the colonial government.