(File photo) 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 3⁄4 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 figh.