KARACHI, Jan 28: The rangers have re-occupied the building of a stadium in PIB Colony and stopped the Nazim of Union Council-3 to use a part of it as his office.

In a letter to the city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, the Nazim of Gulshan-i- Iqbal Town said the rangers had occupied the stadium several years back and vacated it when they went to the borders due to increase in tension. The PIB police station was also housed in the gymnasium building adjacent to the stadium.

He said police had earlier been asked to vacate the place, but due to non- availability of an alternative place, the police station could not be shifted. After the rangers had vacated the place, renovation work at a cost of Rs100,000 had been carried out in order to set up the office and facilitate the people of the area. As soon as the renovation work was completed, the rangers returned on Friday last, stopped the elected representatives to use the place as office and locked the door of the stadium.

He said the stadium was public property and the UC-3 had spent public money on setting up the office, but elected representatives had been stopped from using their own building. He said being the Town Nazim he was being urged since August 14, 2001, to provide space for the office of the union council, but due to absence of army monitoring teams and illegal occupation of the stadium by the rangers, he was finding it difficult to provide a place for the office.

He requested the city Nazim to take appropriate steps and use his influence to get the stadium vacated from the rangers, as the union councillors were forced to perform their official functions in a makeshift office near the PIB bus terminus.