LAHORE: The city administration claimed to have retrieved a cricket ground measuring 51 Kanals from a local cricket club and handed it over to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management on Sunday.

According to administration, the ground, situated near the Qaddafi Stadium, was being used by the club unlawfully since dissolution of the Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA).

“The practice session of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches will be held in the ground we have retrieved from a local club,” Deputy Commissioner Mudassir Riaz Malik said in a press release here.

On the other hand, a source, terming the operation unlawful, said a case between the LCCA and Punjab Sports Board was pending decision in the court over the ownership of the ground. “The ground was rented by the local administration for a match on Sunday. The club management charged nothing from the administration for using the ground. But, later the administration took over the ground’s control,” the source told Dawn.

Meanwhile, the local administration also conducted operations against alleged land-grabbers in Dholanwal (Multan Road), Shanu Baba Chowk (New Defence Road), Bhupatian, Mauza Karbath and Dallu and retrieved state land measuring 60 kanals. “The market price of the retrieved land, including the LCCA ground, totals up to Rs10 billion, approximately,” said a press release.

SAKA CEREMONY: The Saka Nankana Centenary ceremony was held at Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib, on Sunday.

“Nearly 2,000 Sikh yatrees (pilgrims) and devotees, including Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Sardar Satwan, federal minister retired Brig Ejaz Shah and others attended the ceremony,” said a spokesman for the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB).

He said the speakers on the occasion paid rich tributes to the government for making special arrangements for observing the ceremony and condemned the Indian authorities for not allowing Yatrees from India to participate in the event.

Saka (agitation) Nankana ceremony is observed by Sikhs to denounce a massacre in 1921 of demonstrators demanding reforms in Gurdwara Janam Asthan that had become a place of debauchery under the profligate Mahant Narayan Das who was backed by the British rulers.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2021