Punjab Assembly Panel Summons Lahore Gymkhana Management Over Its State-Land Lease

Lahore: An old question about 112 acres of state land in the heart of the city is echoing in the assembly again. In the Lahore Gymkhana lease case, the Punjab Assembly’s Special Committee No 6 has summoned the club’s entire Committee of Management to appear on October 21, and has also demanded complete records from senior provincial officials.

Rs5,000 a year, and land worth Rs218 billion

The numbers are what make this story extraordinary. The club holds about 1,091 kanals near The Mall, Jail Road and Zafar Ali Road at a rent of just Rs5,000 a year under a lease signed in 1996 and running until 2050 — roughly Rs417 a month. A Board of Revenue valuation puts the land’s market value at up to Rs218 billion. On top of that, the club holds a six-acre cricket ground inside Bagh-e-Jinnah at Rs900 a year, on a lease running until 2069.

What is being proposed?

Resolution No 288 asks the government to turn 100 acres into a public park and urban forest, leaving 17 acres to the club, to open the Bagh-e-Jinnah ground to public sport, and to recover past dues — citing the city’s smog among its reasons. The Law Department has told the committee the government may end the lease on six months’ notice, with no compensation payable for the buildings, though no notice has been issued. The committee was formed in September 2024 and its scrutiny has moved slowly since. The contrast keeps the debate alive: the province’s flagship public transplant hospital was built out at Barki, on Lahore’s fringe, for want of land — while 112 acres in the centre of the city hold a golf course and a members’ club.