Punjab govt removes name of Hamid Mir’s father from underpass

The Punjab government has renamed the Waris Mir Underpass on the provincial capital’s Canal Bank Road near the Punjab University (PU), where the late writer and intellectual taught journalism for about 25 years.

The name of Waris Mir, a Hilale Imtiaz recipient, was removed from the underpass on Saturday and renamed the Kashmir Underpass in a sudden and mysterious move that has been condemned by the Waris Mir Foundation.

Senior journalist and anchorperson Hamid Mir’s father, Waris, taught for 30 years at the PU’s Mass Communication Department.

He was not the only one to be honoured by the state in March 2013, since all newly-constructed underpasses, which tallied up to more than a dozen across the city, were named after outstanding intellectuals and prominent personalities, including Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ashfaq Ahmed, Habib Jalib, Justice A R Cornelius, Ustad Daman, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, Khushaal Khan Khatak, Liaqat Ali Khan, Chakare Azam Rind, Justice A R Kiyani and Patras Bokhari.

The names had been decided through a procedure in several meetings of the City District Government, headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court (SC).

Commenting on the move, Waris Mir Foundation spokesperson said “it was nothing but an act of aversion, not against Waris Mir alone, but a sequence of hatred and uncalled-for enmity towards the Pakistani media, in general, which seems to be a line of action of the government”.

“This act, in general, has only been secretly carried out to hurt the sentiments of hundreds of Waris Mir’s students, readers and his posterity,” the spokesperson added.