SAHIWAL: Local young hockey players and office-bearers of the District Hockey Association have raised objections to the proposed construction of classrooms at the hockey ground of the Government High School, Sahiwal (GHSS) amid concerns that the new construction will reduce the space of the ground.

The school produced many hockey players who represented Pakistan at the national and international levels. In the present national hockey team three players – Ahmed Nadeem, Rizwan Ali and Hammad Anjum – had been the students of the school, says Muhammad Ahmed, a senior hockey player who coaches the young hockey players on the ground.

The hockey team of the GHSS won many tournaments at the board and the provincial levels and it has been winning the board tournaments consecutively for the last 22 years.

The GHSS was started in 1835 on, what’s now called, Liaquat Road as a Kotha School during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule. After the British annexation of Punjab in 1849, the local community school was upgraded to the middle school in 1856. After its upgrade to high school in 1897, the school was shifted to its present location on High Street. The present building and all its grounds were established in 1914. After the Army Public School (APS) tragedy in Peshawar, the local authorities changed the school’s name to the APHS.

SST Jamshed, in-charge of the hockey team, says the construction of classrooms would hamper the players’ movement and there is danger they will hit the boundary wall as it would be adjacent to the goalpost.

This correspondent visited the ground and met hockey players. They all were of the opinion that the new construction would make it difficult for them to move from the left side of the ground and to take corners.

Usman Hameed, deputy headmaster, says the school administration and District Education Authority CEO Arshad are reviewing the concerns of players as well as the association. The players demand the authorities to keep the ground in its original shape.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2022