LAHORE – Pictures and memes of a sculpture of Pakistan’s national poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal erected at the Gulshan Iqbal Park in Lahore have gone viral, but for all the wrong reasons.
The sculpture, which the park’s gardeners made with pure love for the man whose vision gave us this country, became the topic for memes and jokes throughout the day.
The sculpture has now been removed after severe backlash on social media.
Allama Iqbal’s sculpture removed from Lahore park after social media backlash
The public were hurt by the awkwardness of the statue, not knowing that it was not made by a professional, but by gardeners to pay their respect to the poet who the park they work at was named after.
Dear, this is prepared by maalis at their own , they made it in shere love for Iqbal and to pay homage from their heart. Authority didn’t approved or even paid a single penny for it.
WE WILL ADDRESS IT but can anyone see from maalis eye’s, their love and their عقیدت, pic.twitter.com/qAdf0Nw4E9— Yasir Gillani PTI (@yasir_gillani) February 2, 2021
That did not stop people from criticising the statue. Daily Pakistan interviewed the people who frequent the park and they said the statue, being at a public place is the responsibility of the government and the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA).
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The making of the statue was overseen by the former DG of the park on orders of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to make selfie points for park-goers after parks get reopened post-Covid lockdown. But the authority was not given a single penny to make the said selfie points.
Laudable though the gardeners’ efforts might be, the results have been criticized; Perhaps, the PHA will not disappoint public the next time.
