RAWALPINDI: Ask anyone in the garrison city about the main road passing through the downtown area and they will say it is Benazir Bhutto Road.

But the residents of the twin cities mistakenly call Murree Road as Benazir Bhutto Road.

As the road connects the city to the hilly resort town of Murree, it has always been known as Murree Road even though in the 1960s it was officially named after Reza Shah Pahlavi, the then Shah of Iran, during his visit to Pakistan.

On May 20, 2008, the then prime minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, announced that the federal government had renamed Rawalpindi Central Hospital and Murree Road after slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Ms Bhutto was attacked after a rally in Liaquat Bagh and brought to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on December 27, 2007.

However, officials in the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) still insist that it was a political announcement and had no effect unless it was notified.

After the former prime minister’s announcement, the hospital was renamed as Benazir Bhutto Hospital as the government issued a notification in this regard. But to change the name of the road, there was no notification.

But the residents started calling the road as Benazir Bhutto Road and even many of the traders along the road changed their signboards and inscribed their letterheads with the new name.

“Murree Road was renamed as Benazir Bhutto Road in 2008 but the Punjab government under the influence of the local PML-N leaders and the then MNAs Malik Shakil Awan and Hanif Abbasi did not install the signboards of the new name,” said Qazi Sultan Mehmood, who is member of the PPP central executive committee, while talking to Dawn.

He added: “The PML-N doesn’t want to rename the road officially and its leaders are against the great leader (Benazir Bhutto).

Malik Shakil Awan and Hanif Abbasi even provoked the PML-N workers to set fire to Benazir Bhutto memorial at Liaquat Bagh in February 26, 2009.”

He said the PPP-led federal government had in 2010 asked the PML-N Punjab government to install the signboards renaming the road after Benazir Bhutto but the latter refused.

But Malik Shakil Awan told Dawn that the allegations of the PPP leader were baseless. He said the former prime minister had made the announcement but never issued the notification.

“We respect Benazir Bhutto but it is not possible to rename all things after her.”

He said the PPP wanted to rename everything in Rawalpindi and even tried to rename Liaquat Bagh as Benazir Bhutto Bagh.

“The PPP failed to give honour to their leader during its five-year-long tenure. It didn’t spend a single penny on the hospital where Ms Bhutto died,” he said.

When contacted, Rawal Town Administrator and Additional District Collector Imran Qureshi said the hospital was renamed as Benazir Bhutto Hospital but there was no official notification about the renaming of Murree Road.

“If the notification is there why in all the official documents the road is still mentioned as Murree Road? Even in the official documents of flyovers and metro bus project, the road is known as Murree Road,” he explained.

On the other hand, former opposition leader in the Rawal Town Council Nasir Mir and deputy opposition leader Haji Sher Zaman said the Rawal Town Council on January 13, 2008, had passed a unanimous resolution to rename Murree Road as Benazir Bhutto Road.

They said if the prime minister’s directive was not effective, the local administration would have to implement the resolution of the elected house. The house had renamed many roads in this way in 2007,” they added.