By Admin 
Pakistan’s Punjab government, under pressure from some extremist elements, has postponed its plan to restore the original historical names of many streets and alleys in Lahore. An official said on Tuesday (26 May 2026) that the aim of the plan was to revive the pre-Partition heritage of the city. Lahore Heritage Area Revival (LAHR) in its recently held meeting had approved to restore the original historical names of roads and streets in Lahore and its surrounding areas.
PAK won applause by changing its name
The meeting was jointly chaired by PML-N president and former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. The Chief Minister’s Office issued a statement informing the media about this decision. Nawaz Sharif, who is currently not active in politics after the general elections of February 2024, is the head of Lahore Heritage Area Redevelopment (LAHR). Then Pakistan won a lot of applause after changing its name.
Lahore administration had said that Islampura area had once again become ‘Krishna Nagar’. At the same time, Babri Masjid Chowk will be renamed as Jain Mandir Chowk, Sunnat Nagar will be known as Sant Nagar and Mustafabad will again be known as Dharmpura. Now all those claims of Pakistan have been blown away. However, the government has reversed this decision and said that it is still considering restoring the original names of the roads and streets of Lahore.
‘No decision has been taken to change the name’
Lahore Deputy Commissioner R. Mohammad Ali Ijaz told Dawn newspaper on Monday (25 May 2026), ‘No such decision has been taken yet.’ When asked that both Nawaz Sharif and Maryam had approved the restoration of the original names of roads and streets and the Chief Minister’s Office had issued a release in this regard on March 20, Ijaz insisted that no decision had been taken yet as the matter was under consideration.
Pakistan bowed before fundamentalists
An official source, however, said that some extremist elements, including vloggers, strongly criticized Maryam for restoring the pre-partition “Hindu and Sikh” names of Lahore’s streets and lanes. He said, ‘Since critics gave a religious color to the government’s decision, the Maryam Nawaz administration has postponed the decision to avoid backlash.’ Following the reaction from extremist elements, LHAR recently organized a meeting of scholars, historians, architects, urban planners and other prominent individuals and sought their suggestions on a proposal to restore the original names of roads, streets and localities across Lahore.
Historic streets and roads of Lahore whose names were changed by previous governments include Queen’s Road, Jail Road, Davis Road, Lawrence Road, Empress Road, Krishna Nagar, Sant Nagar, Dharampura, Brandreth Road, Ram Gali, Tempbell Street, Lakshmi Chowk, Jain Mandir Road, Kumharpura, Mohan Lal Bazaar, Sunder Das Road, Bhagwan Pura, Shanti Nagar and Outfall Road.
Also read: Congress high command asks Siddaramaiah to step down as CM, will DK Shivakumar get the command?