ISLAMABAD: After suffering widespread criticism, the Pakistan Sports Board got the Amir Khan Boxing Academy vacated from Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force which had been residing in its premises for almost two years, in the wee hours of Monday.

The issue had come to light on Friday, when Britain-born Pakistani boxer Amir Khan raised his voice over the FC setting up their residence in the academy located in the premises of the Pakistan Sports Complex.

A PSB officer informed that the premises was vacated from the FC at 2:00am on Monday with staff from the country’s sports regulatory body and workers of Capital Development Authority carrying out a cleaning operation after dawn.

“The facility requires renovation,” said the PSB officer, vowing that it will be revived and “we are planning to hold a boxing event”.

Amir Khan appreciated government for getting the facility vacated from the FC, saying he would ensure it becomes activated in a month.

“I want to say big thank you to Pakistan Sports Board and Pakistan Army and also government, also interior minister Mohsin Naqvi, who helped us a lot for getting the premises vacated,” the former WBC silver welterweight world champion said in a video message from Dubai.

“All FC personnel have gone from gym [academy]. We will open the gym [academy] after one month and we will bring all new required equipment. I had been receiving a lot of messages from aspiring boxers that they had been unable to train. But now they can do that and aspire to fight for Pakistan on the world stage.”

Amir had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up the academy in 2015 and subsequently set up a state-of-the-art facility. The facility was closed during the Covid-19 pandemic until the FC took control of it in 2022.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2024