KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is claiming to have achieved a herculean task of renewing the lease of the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium, formerly known as the Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP), courtesy Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, but the irony is that the 30-year lease will expire in 2023.

The stadium, which comes under the Karachi Cantonment Board (KCB), was constructed and leased to the PHF in 1963 for 30 years that expired in 1993. This lease was renewed for another 30 years (1993-2023) recently.

Since then successive PHF hierarchies have made efforts to get the lease renewed but to no avail. However, an ambitious plan to demolish and reconstruct the historic venue has now been finalised and the work in this regard is expected to start sometime next month.

It is pertinent to mention that the stadium which has hosted top-class international hockey events besides two National Games over the years, has been declared as dangerous — due to its weak structure -- by Karachi Cantonment Board (KCB) and the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA).

The stadium houses 62 tenants who have occupied 139 offices and shops in the premises.

Likely completion of venue’s reconstruction in 2023 to coincide with expiry of fresh lease

A meeting of the representatives of tenants association and the PHF was held on Friday to discuss an amicable evacuation of the former’s belongings from their offices and shops.

“It was agreed that the incumbent tenants will be given preference after the reconstruction of the stadium,” director administration of PHF camp office Mohammad Junaid told Dawn.

The new state-of-the-art design has been prepared by the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) while the Sindh government has allocated an enormous fund of Rs1500 million and has released Rs850 million for the project that will be completed within one-and-a-half years, Junaid added.

Strangely, the completion of the reconstruction, which will reduce the current seating capacity of the stadium from 25,000 to 15,000, will coincide with the expiry of the renewed lease.

According to Junaid, the turf will be rolled by engineers before the demolition of the stadium’s present structure.

Besides the stadium, he further said, the PHF also possesses the lease of car parking that was given to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases by his predecessor.

It may be mentioned here that two more grounds adjacent to the stadium that were also part of the original lease (1963-1993) are now in the possession of the KCB which has constructed residential apartments for armed forces personnel.

Junaid, who assumed charge on March 1 this year, lamented the PHF has suffered huge losses due to delay in payments by the occupants as some of them have sub-let their shops. “After strenuous efforts I have been able to recover Rs14 million [outstanding] dues so far,” he added.

The PHF official said the PHF camp office will be temporarily shifted to the adjacent players hostel till the completion of the project.

Meanwhile, according to the KCB, several meetings have taken place in the last decade pertaining to the matter and it was resolved that the PHF should rent out offices to corporate sector only after getting security clearance from Station Headquarter, Karachi as the area comes under security zone.

During the meetings it was also decided that the parking facility of the stadium will be used strictly for parking purpose only. Unfortunately, the facility was misused for many years for holding marriage ceremonies.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2021