BATHINDA: The Metropolitan Corporation Lahore has opposed the renaming of a roundabout in Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and has recommended to the Lahore High Court to dismiss the contempt petition pertaining to naming of a roundabout. The recommendation by the corporation has been made citing a brief note prepared in 2018 by a retired Commodore Tariq Majeed who had vehemently opposed the naming of Fowara Chowk Shadman as Bhagat Singh chowk. Majeed even had stated that Bhagat Singh had no role in the subcontinent’s freedom struggle and he was not a revolutionary but a criminal-a terrorist in today’ terms- as he killed a British police officer.
The bench of Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza of Lahore High Court has adjourned the case to January 17, 2025.
Lahore-based Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Chairman Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi had filed a contempt of court petition in Lahore High Court under article 204 of the constitution of Pakistan, 1973 read with sections ¾ of the contempt of court act, 2003, on March 1, 2024, against Punjab government Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Deputy Commissioner Rafia Haider and Administrator City District Government for not naming roundabout in Lahore city after Bhagat Singh.
In a written response submitted in the court on November 8 by Assistant Advocate General Asghar Leghari, it has been mentioned as per observations made by Commodore Tariq Majeed that declaring Bhagat Singh as a great revolutionary, freedom fighter and martyr is wrong, as Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation has faked the case of naming the chowk through a fake propaganda. It has also been mentioned that the NGO Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation is working against Islamic ideology and Pakistani culture, it should be banned and investigations should be made from where it is getting funds for its activities, who is supporting it inside and outside Pakistan. Security agencies need to investigate its officials.
Earlier bench of Lahore High Court headed by Justice Shahid Jamil Khan had disposed of the petition on September 5, 2018, and in its order had asked the authorities to decide about prayer made by Qureshi for naming Shadman chowk as Bhagat Singh strictly in accordance with law. The court had mentioned that the same grievance was voiced through writ petition 28446 of 2012 which was disposed of as borne fruit on the undertaking of the respondents that any application, if moved, shall be considered in accordance with law.
A roundabout named as Shadman chowk had turned up at a place where Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to death on March 23, 1931, as then the place was part of the Central Jail Lahore, Qureshi had stated in the petition.