Punjab Assembly summons Gymkhana Club over land lease
The Punjab Assembly’s Special Committee No 6 has summoned the entire Committee of Management of the Lahore Gymkhana Club to appear in person on Oct 21 to answer questions about land use, lease compliance, building approvals and public grants. The Lahore Gymkhana Club lease has faced questions for years over its nominal rent.
Notices issued by Assembly Secretary General Chaudhry Amer Habib direct senior club figures, including Kamran Lashari and Salman Siddique, to appear personally. The committee, convened by MPA Sami Ullah Khan, will hold sessions on Oct 20 and 21.
Bureaucrats ordered to bring records
The Senior Member of the Board of Revenue, the Deputy Commissioner of Lahore, the Law Secretary, the Agriculture Secretary, the DG PHA and the DG Audit (Punjab) must submit written responses with supporting documents.
The inquiry will examine the legal basis of the 50-year lease at Rs5,000 a year and the club’s exclusion from a May 2023 Board of Revenue notification. The Lahore DC must present a certified reconciliation of revenue records against actual possession, including measurement discrepancies, Khasra 2108, and a reported excess of 3 kanals and 16 marlas involving Khasras 2100 and 2107.
The panel is also examining unapproved structures and whether the club’s premises, which management describes as never commercial, truly serve the public interest.
Rs64 million in grants under the microscope
The Director General Audit (Punjab) must present findings on four special government grants totalling Rs64 million received by the club, along with unverified expenditures and rental concession values.
Club management committee members named in the summons include Dr Ali Razzaque, Mian Misbah ur Rehman, Wajid Aziz Khan, Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera, Sarmad Nadeem, Dr Jawad Sajid Khan, Tasneem Noorani, Mian Parvez Bhandara, M Zia-ur-Rehman and Samaira Nazir. They must bring authenticated lease deeds, registration documents, five years of audited accounts, fee schedules and membership criteria.
Lahore Gymkhana Club lease: 112 acres at Rs44 an acre
Documents before the committee show the club holds about 1,090 kanals, roughly 112 acres, on the Mall. The lease was renewed in 1996, four years early, for 50 years at Rs5,000 a year. That works out to about Rs44 an acre.
The Board of Revenue’s own assessment values comparable land at Rs70 million to Rs200 million a kanal, putting the holding’s worth between Rs76 billion and Rs218 billion.
The 1996 deed binds the club to “provide facilities in Public Sector.” Yet membership is reserved for grade-18+ civil servants and armed forces officers at a minimal entrance fee. The club’s buildings went up between 1972 and 2012, and the Board of Revenue says it has “no record” of the government approval each one required.
The club also holds six acres of Bagh-e-Jinnah for a cricket ground at Rs900 a year, on a lease running until 2069.
A public park instead?
Resolution No 288, moved by Amjad Ali Javed and Rao Kashif Rahim Khan, asks the government to convert 100 acres into a public park and urban forest, leaving 17 acres with the club. It also seeks to open the Bagh-e-Jinnah ground to public sport, recover past dues, and cites the city’s smog. Lahore’s air quality has repeatedly ranked among the world’s worst, and a Copernicus report recently flagged ozone pollution over the city. Supporters of the resolution argue a 100-acre urban forest would serve the public far better than a members-only golf course.
There is also a precedent across the border. This summer, New Delhi ordered the Delhi Gymkhana Club, founded in 1913, the same year as Lahore’s, to vacate its land. Lahore’s lease carries the same public-purpose power, and the Law Department has confirmed to the committee that the government may end the lease on six months’ notice, with no compensation for the buildings. No notice has been issued.
The contrast is stark: for want of land, public institutions have been pushed to the city’s fringe. The Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute, the province’s flagship public transplant hospital, was built at Barki on Lahore’s outskirts, while 112 acres of state land in the heart of the city hold a golf course and a members’ club.
The committee will issue findings and recommendations after the hearings.
What has the PA committee asked the Gymkhana Club?
The club’s full management committee must appear on Oct 21 with lease deeds, registration documents, five years of audited accounts, fee schedules and membership criteria.
How much land does the club hold, and at what rent?
About 1,090 kanals (112 acres) on the Mall at Rs5,000 a year, plus six acres in Bagh-e-Jinnah at Rs900 a year.
Can the government cancel the lease?
The Law Department confirmed the lease can be ended on six months’ notice with no compensation for buildings. No notice has been issued.
