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By Amar Guriro
KARACHI: The Saddar Town Municipal Administration (TMA) is replacing the names of colonial era names of roads, streets and places located in the downtown with those of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers, who were killed in bomb blasts, target killings or even shootouts with different political parties.
Saddar Town Naib Nazim Muhammad Nisar Khan Temuri disclosed that the Saddar TMA has changed 400 names of places, roads and streets in the last four years.
In a recent move, the town administration announced changing the names of 11 locations in Saddar Town including the Chatumal Road in Garden, named after the famous philanthropist and politician of the city Sobhraj Chatumal, who built a maternity hospital and several other welfare organisations in the late 1920s.
The administration also issued a public notice signed by the council officer of Saddar Town asking the general public to submit their objections or suggestions within 15 days against or in favour of the proposed names.
The notice stated that the Saddar TMA plans to replace the names of two parks, a cricket stadium, a roundabout and a road with the name of Muhammad Khaleel Shaheed, a former MQM nazim of UC-10 Saddar Town, who died in the blast outside the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre emergency ward. He went there to donate blood to people who were injured in the blast at the Shahrah-e-Quaideen Bridge.
The notice also stated that the Saddar TMA is changing the names “under the powers vested to the TMAs under Subsection 7 of Section 52 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 1979”.
Former Karachi nazim Niamatullah Khan opposed the move and said there was no such power granted to the TMAs in the local government ordinance. “Nobody can change the historical names of places, streets and roads,” Khan told this scribe over the phone.
Temuri said, “It is not a matter of powers vested under the ordinance and we issued the public notice as a formality, otherwise we can simply change the name without asking anyone.”
Talking to this scribe at his office, Temuri admitted that the town administration has replaced the names of these places with those of MQM workers. “They have made sacrifices and were martyred for a cause.”
He argued that whoever came into power did the same thing, and if his administration has done it, it’s not a major problem.
“Nobody questioned the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) when they changed the name of Kharkar Chowrangi to Bilawal Chorangi. What has Bilawal done, except that he is the son of President Asif Ali Zardari? So what is the problem if we change the names of places and roads too,” he said.
Justifying the move, he said most of the sites were from the pre-Partition era and were named after Hindu leaders of that time.
“Who is this Chatumal? Nobody knows him now. So it’s better to replace such names with the names of those who have made sacrifices,” he said.
Saddar Town Municipal Officer Mukhtar Hussain claimed that union councils had moved resolutions to change the names. However, he could not provide copies of the resolutions.
The Saddar TMA plans to replace the names of Street 6 Park, UC-11, Block 2, Clifton; Cricket Stadium UC10, Block 5, Clifton; Gulshan-e-Faisal Roundabout, Block 7, UC-10, Bath Island; Albert Road, UC-9, Clifton and Bukhari Park, Block 7, UC-10, Clifton with Muhammad Khaleel Shaheed’s name.
Similarly, Preet Road in Garden would be changed to Arif Shabeer Road; Chatumal Road in Garden to Imran Hussain Shaheed Road; Hard Davis Road in Garden to Yaseen Chipa Shaheed Road; Chela Ram Compound in Garden to Musheeruddin Shaheed Street; Sotara Street in UC-5 in Nanak Wara to Haji Zafar Shaheed Street and a service road in Clifton Block 8 to AW Adamjee Road.
Talking to this scribe, the residents of Chela Ram Compound located in Garden area said they would not accept this move. An elderly resident of the area, Manzoor Ali said the compound comprises 12 houses and was 103 years old.
“There were two brothers Chela Ram and Chhela Ram. One brother had built the residential compound here and the other built another compound in Usmanabad. The name shouldn’t be changed,” he said.
Several sites were given new names in the past but people are still not used to them. Some places are still known by their old names, including Geedar Colony in Landhi Town that has been renamed as Muzzafarabad Colony and II Chundrigar Road that was previously McLeod Road.
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