GUJRAT: The Punjab government has approved construction of a sports arena at the main ground of a government college for elementary teachers in Ghakhar Mandi town of Gujranwala district on the recommendations of Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

However, the college administration and teachers have expressed reservations over utilisation of the institute’s ground for the sports facility and their reservations were conveyed to the Punjab government through a letter written by the college principal, official sources said.

Since Ghakhar Mandi is the hometown of Gen Bajwa, the sports facility is most likely to be named after him but a formal notification is yet to be issued, a senior official in the administration told Dawn.

The seven-acre piece of land located in front of the teachers training college along GT Road was selected for the sports arena, which would include multiple facilities for the youth of this town in Wazirabad tehsil, Gujranwala district.

The Gujranwala Divisional Development Working Party approved the project in its meeting on Dec 13 and it would be executed in the current fiscal year. The Punjab Sports Board’s Project Management Unit has prepared a feasibility report according to which Rs175 million would be spent on the project, including construction of cricket and football grounds at Rs74.5m, hockey ground Rs65.7m, squash, tennis and basketball courts at Rs17.2m, residences and servant quarters Rs1.5m, jogging track Rs1.8m and 10 per cent charges on contingency, design and consultancy.

The Gujranwala deputy commissioner’s office has sought a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the college administration as well as the provincial education department for construction of the sports arena, as the provincial government has directed the departments concerned to expedite planning and execution of the project on priority. The NOC, however, has not been issued yet.

Initially, the administration had conveyed to the provincial government reservations of the college administration and teachers over utilisation of the college ground, but official sources told Dawn that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had rejected those reservations and ordered to execute the project.

The COAS secretariat at General Headquarters, Rawalpindi had initially recommended two sites for the project: the college ground and another eight-acre one near Gakhar city, which is currently in possession of the police department and owned by forest department. However, the Punjab government was later told that the secretariat considered the college site most suitable upon which the CM issued directions to execute the project there.

The elementary college, known as Quaid-i-Azam Academy for Education, has been a training institute for government teachers from across Gujranwala division. Some banners inscribed with protest slogans were seen on the front boundary wall of the college on Wednesday. However, official sources said the project will be executed at the site within the next few months at any cost.

Local sources said Gen Bajwa had been asked by some residents of Gakhar Mandi to initiate a public welfare project in his hometown as had his predecessor retired Gen Raheel Sharif, who recommended the Punjab government to establish a 60-bed tehsil headquarters hospital in his ancestral town of Kunjah in Gujrat district around two years ago at Rs400 million. That hospital is named after Gen Raheel’s brother, Maj Shabbir Sharif Shaheed.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2017