Since 1913, the Punjab Government has billed the Lahore Gymkhana Club for a total amount of Rs 2 lakh, 60 thousand, and 800 rupees. And the club has not paid all of this either according to the government.
The revelation was made in a recent article published by this paper’s sister publication, Profit. The article points mainly towards the current agreement that the club has with Lahore’s district administration, whereby it pays a monthly rent of Rs 417, or Rs 5000 a year, for the use of 117 acres of land that is the property of the Punjab Government.
This is by no means a good look. The Lahore Gymkhana is one of the many colonial era private clubs that are housed on public land. In most of these cases, the British had given the land for these clubs at token rates so that their officers could enjoy leisure time at these institutions. It was a way for The Raj to boost morale and maintain a kind of social control over the local populations. Even in the case of Lahore Gymkhana, the first agreement to use government land for the club was made with the district administration in 1913 at a rate of Rs 1600 a year.
Now, the government often allows the use of its land at token rates for uses that are in the public good. This act of public good could be building a school, a public access sports ground, or a hospital. But what public good does an elite golf club with hereditary membership serve today?
This has in recent days become an issue taken up in the Punjab Assembly, where one lawmaker pointed to an estimate that the commercial rent value of the 117 acres used by the club is Rs 30 crores a month. A special committee has also been constituted to evaluate the status quo. But will the assembly, which we know for a fact contains more than a few members of the club, manage to do anything about it?
During Monday’s session, Speaker Malik Mohammad Ahmad read out Profit’s article on the issue, and asked for copies to be distributed among the members. He said that the article was posing a challenge to the committee, and it was up to them now to prove they could right this wrong. The speaker’s acknowledgement is appreciated, and one can only hope that the members of the committee will take the task with the seriousness it requires.
