New Delhi: Succumbing to the pressures from ‘extremist elements’ who do not want Hindu-era names to return, Pakistan has deferred to act on its earlier decision to restore pre-Partition names of certain streets in Lahore.
“Some extremist elements, including vloggers, took on CM Maryam regarding the decision by giving it a religious colour. The Punjab administration appears to have gone on the back foot and deferred the decision to avert backlash,” Dawn reported Tuesday.
According to Dawn reporter, Zulqarnain Tahir, bloggers like Orya Maqbool Jan and others posted content on Facebook condemning the move. “On TikTok, videos claiming ‘ab Rahim se Ram ki taraf jayenge’ started coming up,” he told ThePrint.
Former Lahore DG Kamran Lashari, however, dismissed these reports. He told ThePrint that “the renaming is getting processed, drawing some principles and the right forum” and that it is not being deferred.
The proposal, discussed earlier this year under the Lahore Heritage Areas Revival (LHAR) initiative, has been spearheaded by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. The initiative sought to revive parts of Lahore’s historical and cultural legacy by restoring several pre-Partition street and locality names that had been changed after Pakistan emerged in 1947.
Zeeshan Hussain, one of the coordinators of the LHAR project, told ThePrint that the Punjab government is yet to take a final decision on restoring Lahore’s historical street and locality names, despite public debate on the proposal.
He dismissed the bloggers and said that no one takes such ‘influencers’ seriously in Lahore, especially in a project where the former PM himself is involved. He added that after news of the renaming became popular in India, the government too was eager to go ahead.
“I just met the Lahore deputy commissioner, and he said no decision has been made yet,” the participant said, adding that the government was not formally endorsing any proposal at this stage. Instead, the process was still in its consultative phase.
“No such decision has been taken as yet,” Lahore Deputy Commissioner Capt. Muhammad Ali Ijaz told Dawn despite an earlier official statement indicating that the proposal had received approval during a March meeting jointly presided over by Nawaz Sharif.
The backlash appears to have prompted the provincial administration to slow the process, wary of triggering a broader political controversy.
As part of the initiative, the LHAR committee had recently convened historians, architects, urban planners and scholars to discuss the restoration of historical names across the city. Over the decades, many of Lahore’s colonial-era and pre-Partition place names were replaced with names associated with Islamic leaders, Pakistani national figures or ideological symbols after independence.
Queen’s Road became Fatima Jinnah Road. Lawrence Road was renamed Bagh-i-Jinnah Road. Krishan Nagar became Islampura, while Santnagar was renamed Sunnat Nagar. Temple Street was changed to Hameed Nizami Road, and Laxmi Chowk was officially redesignated as Maulana Zafar Ali Khan Chowk. Some renamings carried overt religious symbolism. Jain Mandir Road, for instance, became Babri Masjid Chowk.
Back to the drawing board
Hussain, who attended the first round of discussions, described the meeting as “very fruitful.” The meeting was attended largely by scholars, historians and architects who broadly supported preserving Lahore’s older historical names.
“Most people felt we should continue with the old names,” the participant said.
However, some attendees argued that names associated with British colonial rule should not necessarily be retained. Their argument, the participant said, was that British colonial rulers had been “cruel,” and that colonial-era names should therefore be reconsidered.
Others pushed back against selectively erasing parts of history. The process, he said, would now move into a wider consultative phase involving “all segments of society,” not just liberal intellectual circles. Public opinion would be gathered before any recommendations were finalised and eventually sent to the provincial cabinet for approval.
According to Hussain, the intention is not necessarily to rename roads wholesale, but to establish principles governing historical names and their preservation.
Hussain also pointed out that many famous Lahore localities including, Krishan Nagar, Bhagatpura and Dharampura, were never formally “regularised” through cabinet approval and instead became established through historical usage over decades.
“The names became famous over time,” Hussain said. “Now the question is how to formally regularise them.”
Also read: In Lahore, Islampura is now Krishan Nagar—Pakistan is changing street names to honour history
Layered identity of Lahore
In an earlier conversation with ThePrint, Kamran Lashari, the former DG of Walled City Lahore and the secretary of LHAR, had described the government’s move as a means to restore the layered identity of Lahore itself—Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Christian, colonial and Mughal at once.
“Whether it is Christian, Sikh, Hindu or Parsi, it doesn’t matter. Inside the fort, there are many names of non-Muslims. We take them with great joy and enthusiasm,” he had said.
Lashari had also mentioned that LHAR was Sharif’s dream project. Among the projects already completed or underway are the restoration of churches, gurdwaras, temples and other 19th-century Sikh structures associated with the empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore.
Lashari said that the government had twice in the past attempted to install a statue of Ranjit Singh in Lahore, though both attempts were met with vandalism. However, according to him, the climate in Pakistan had changed.
Lashari pointed to the restoration of churches as another sign of changing attitudes. One project, he noted, involved St Mary’s Church, among the earliest churches established by the British in Lahore.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)