Pakistan’s Punjab govt defers roads renaming plan to avert backlash from extremist elements
PT News Lahore, May 26
PT News
Giving in to the pressure of some “extremist elements”, Pakistan’s Punjab government has deferred its plan to restore original historical names of roads and several streets in Lahore, aimed at reviving the city’s pre-Partition heritage, an official said on Tuesday. The Lahore Heritage Areas Revival (LAHR), in its recently held meeting, jointly presided over by PML-N president and three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, gave approval to the restoration of original historical names of roads and streets in Lahore and its neighbourhood. The Chief Minister’s office informed the media about the decision in a statement.
Sharif, who is currently not active in politics after the February 2024 general election, is the head of LAHR. The government, however, appears to have taken a U-turn on the decision, saying it is still considering restoring the original names of Lahore’s roads and streets. “No such decision has been taken yet,” Lahore Deputy Commissioner Capt R Muhammad Ali Ijaz told Dawn on Monday. When asked that both Sharif and Maryam had given approval to the restoration of the original names of roads and streets, and the CM office duly issued a handout in this regard on March 20, Ijaz insisted that “no decision has been taken yet as the matter is under discussion”.
An official source, however, said that some extremist elements, including vloggers, strongly criticised Maryam for restoring pre-Partition “Hindu and Sikh” names of the roads and streets in Lahore. “As the critics gave the government’s decision a religious colour, the Maryam Nawaz administration has gone on the backfoot and deferred the decision to avert backlash,” he said. After the backlash from extremist elements, LHAR recently held a gathering of scholars, historians, architects, urban planners, and other prominent persons and sought their suggestions on the “proposal” to restore the original names of roads, streets, and localities across Lahore.