LAHORE: The Punjab Horticulture Authority (PHA) has formed a committee to resolve the issue that emerged in the aftermath of the closure of eight gyms in the parks of Lahore that were being run by the private sector under a contract.

After formation of the committee, the affected parties postponed the protest scheduled for Monday in front of the Lahore Press Club.

“We have met with the PHA director general and informed him about our grievances and the losses we are suffering from. Now a committee has been formed to resolve the issue,” the owners of the gyms told Dawn. They expressed hope that the matter would be resolved amicably; otherwise, they would hold the protest.

Meanwhile, when contacted, PHA board of directors chairman Yasir Gilani told Dawn the committee was already working to resolve the issue.

When asked why the PHA had taken the decision despite knowing that all the eight clubs had been working under a specified contract for the last many decades, Yasir said the chief minister had received some complaints against the gyms. But when asked about nature of the complaints, Mr Yasir said he did not know much about it but added that the government wanted to provide such services to the masses free of cost. He said the government wanted to run these gyms on its own to provide free services to youth, claiming that the government would meet all the expenses for provision of free service for exercise.

Mr Gillani also claimed the matter would be resolved amicably between the PHA and the gym owners.

Meanwhile, in another development, the Sports Board Punjab did not extend the 89-day contract of its 150 employees. The contract expired on Saturday and the board did not issue fresh letters to the employees that it had to do on Monday. The affected employees staged a protest in front of the sports board office, raising slogans against the government’s decision.

A spokesman for the sports board said though he did not know the exact number of the affected workers, most of them were the lower cadre employees.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018