JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: According to a report, Dilkash Lahore (Beautification of Lahore) Committee Chairman Justice (retd) Khalil Ramday has said that minorities are the most important part of any society and the majority should respect them and their properties. Despite this, the committee scrapped a plan to rename one of Lahore’s newly renovated roundabouts (Shadman Chowk) after freedomfighter Bhagat Singh, hanged by the then colonial power, Britain, at the same spot almost a century ago.
Reportedly, this happened because a religious group challenged the move in the Lahore High Court saying that the renaming should not be done since Bhagat Singh was not a Muslim.
Now is the time for the people of Lahore to come out and reject these elements or else be prepared to rename buildings after the likes of Osama bin Laden, Mullah Umar, Ajmal Kasab, Mumtaz Qadri, Nek Mohammed, Hakeemullah Mehsud and so on.
It’s very disappointing that liberal forces in Pakistan are on retreat against this onslaught of extremism. If we can’t pay respect to martyrs who played a major role irrespective of their religious faiths in getting the British out of the subcontinent, then we should all be ashamed of ourselves.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2012.
