Last year, Pakistan Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz constituted an authority named Lahore Authority for Heritage Revival (LAHR). This was done at the behest of her father Nawaz Sharif, strong man of his party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). He was dumped by the Miltablishment in early 2024 after his party failed to win a clear majority, despite large scale rigging in its favour.
Instead, a more pliant Shehbaz Sharif was chosen as Prime Minister of the country. Nawaz has often advocated a soft line towards India though it is another matter that 1999 Kargil war happened during his term as PM. An ace politician, Mianji (as he is called) is now a fish out of water as he doesn’t have a day to day say in governance of Pakistan.
His daughter Maryam is, in a way, a proxy devoted to Dad Dear who has often talked of getting rid of hardline Islamist tendencies in the Punjab society. This may be his way of asserting himself, stay relevant and take potshots at the Army, particularly its chief Asim Munir. Shehbaz Sharif, despite being the PM, is no match for wile Munir who sets the tone of India-Pakistan relations.
Asim’s Nazaria e Pakistan speech made before Non Resident Pakistanis (NRPs) last year had apparently led to the Pahalgam carnage of April 22, 2025. A week earlier, on April 15, 2025, General Munir had delivered a “motivational address” to overseas Pakistanis in Islamabad. Dipped in vitriol, this speech was deeply divisive, extolled the virtues of the Two Nation Theory (TNT) and dumped Pakistan’s secular pretensions, if any existed ever.
Incidentally, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reports more to Nawaz than to Shehbaz. All this is a part of political chessboard of Pakistan which Nawaz operates from behind the scenes, despite having no formal position.
LAHR is a gift from the daughter to Mianji who wants to restore Lahore’s architectural and cultural fabric. A couple of restaurants in the Badshahi Masjid have a large number of broken statues of Hindu deities like Shri Ganesh ji, Luxmi ji and others. Almost eight decades after Partition, Lahore now has signboards giving the pre-Independence names of the places. In this transformation, Islampura is being called Krishan Nagar again. Similarly, Babri Masjid Chowk is now Jain Mandir Chowk. In all, it is said that nine places have been renamed.
Sunnatnagar is Santnagar, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan Chowk is Lakshmi Chowk, Mustafaabad is Dharampura, Sir Aga Khan Chowk is Davis Road, Allama Iqbal Road is Jail Road, Fatima Jinnah Road is Queens Road and Bagh-e-Jinnah is back to being Lawrence Gardens.
The trend of renaming old places with historically Hindu, Sikh, Jain or English names with Islamic ones is has a long history. In a crude display of Islamist zeal in Sindh, Ram Bagh was renamed as Aram Bagh. Similarly, Sita Road railway station was named as Rehmani Nagar, with little understanding of history or cultural roots that were responsible for the original name.
Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) renamed Nawabshah city as Shaheed Benazirabad.
The renaming campaign in Lahore hits the soft underbelly of Islamist zealots who have ruled the roost and denied Pakistan’s historical and cultural roots. A case in point is some overzealous morons tracing the genesis of Pakistan as an Islamic state back to 712 AD attack of Muhammad Bin Qasim on Sindh.
According to Kamran Lashri, secretary of LAHR, Mian Nawaz Sharif keeps wants the restoration of most old names as they resonate with the local Lahoris. The LHAR is helmed by Mianji who is the patron-in-chief of its steering committee, perhaps the first official engagement for him in the past over two years.
Lahore reportedly has 115 historical buildings of which 48 are being restored. Besides steering committee, another sub-committee comprising state officials has also will offer Nawaz the opportunity to interact formally with the bureaucracy.
Incidentally, it is believed that the Lahore city itself is named after Lava, the son of Shri Ram. Kasur, on the other hand, was founded by his brother Kusha.
Some projects to restore gurdwaras dating back to the empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Successive Pakistani governments, both at the provincial and Federal level, have supported anti-India Khalistan movement worldwide. Pakistan was responsible for decades of carnage in Indian Punjab carried out by Khalistanis. What has changed and what is the real motive to revive some buildings associated with Sikhs?
Incidentally, in the modern history, Maharaja Ranjit Singh gave Lahore its identity worldwide after choosing it as his capital. However, the governments have failed twice to install a statue of the late Maharaja. A nine-foot-tall bronze statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh installed at the Lahore Fort near his Samadhi in 2019 has been vandalised twice by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) of Saad Hussain Rizvi.
The restoration of churches is also being undertaken in some cases. However, there is no let-up in abduction of minor Christian girls, their rapes, subsequent forced conversion and marrying them off to their abductors. In most cases, the police and the judiciary, who could come to the rescue to the minority Christians, connive with and help the rapists, encouraging such behaviour.
On his return from London, Nawaz Sharif had repeatedly promised from public forums that he will intervene effectively to curb the powers of the military and the police in Balochistan. He had said that the mishandling of Balochistan will end and things will improve. However, during the time he has been back in Pakistan, the military has only become more powerful and the number of enforced disappearances has been rising.
This has long been Pakistan’s strategy to promote distinct Sikh, Buddhist and Jain identities by restoring the sites associated with them. This strategy is aimed at undermining a pan-Indian identity and strike at it in a not so subtle manner.
Will Pakistan accept the civilisational identity? The identity that endorses Lahore as the city of Lava? Kasur as city of Kusha? General Asim Munir’s Nazaria e Pakistan flies in the face of feeble attempts of renaming undertaken in Lahore at Nawaz’s behest.
