Changing the name of Waris Mir Underpass to Allama Iqbal Underpass in Lahore has little bearing on public life, of course. But why, still, do we do such things? Lahore has long been subject to changing and re-changing of names of its places, putting its citizens in a quick race to reset their minds accordingly. And there is no mechanism to name or rename public places. If a ruler likes personality X, he will name a corner of the city after that personality, unable to grasp the idea that the city is meant for its citizens, who are under no obligation to call a place what the ruler likes them to. For long, a particular area has been known as New Campus of Punjab University. All Lahorites call it so until one day somebody names it Warish Mir Underpass.
Now that the rulers have decided to change it again, for whatever reasons, they should have renamed it New Campus Underpass, which it is actually. Waris Mir may have rendered services to journalism and literature and to pay tribute to him a facility that encourages literature or journalism should have been named after him. Similarly, down on the same Canal Road, there are other underpasses named after literary figures like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ishfaq Ahmed. These figures are towering ones because a major chunk of Pakistanis are influenced by them. That is quite natural but presuming that by bracketing Model Town or The Mall with their names we are doing them a great honour escapes logic.
Perhaps the best way to pay tribute to such people is to read their work, which we are rather short on. Such random steps as changing names actually inconveniences citizens who fail to locate places on roads, especially when someone returns home after spending some years outside. The rulers should keep their likes and dislikes to themselves and not try to force them on the masses the way they do. Roads and underpasses should be known by the names of the places they connect us with, which is the real service to the citizens of Lahore. At least the rulers should not settle their scores with their rivals on our roads and underpasses. They should do it where it is due and spare this city. *