Public Funds Misused at Lala Ayub Hockey Ground: A Turf of Corruption?
The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Islamabad spent about 100
million rupees on a new turf for Peshawar's revered Lala Ayub Hockey Ground. Unfortunately,
the project has already been marred with problems, with nails and spikes coming
out of the turf-leaving serious concerns for player safety.
Syed Zahir Shah, President Hockey Association, has strongly
condemned:
"We want DG Yasir Pirzada of the PSB to conduct an
inquiry into the state of the turf. This is public tax money being wasted. The
inquiry committee was constituted, following which Deputy Director Shahid Islam
came to inspect the turf, but till date we have not seen any result of this
inquiry," said Zahir Shah.
He also blamed the contractor who came from Canada:
"The contractor earned his money, collected his payment
from PSB, and ran. But we will not leave him scot-free. The provincial sports
directorate too raised reservations about the quality, so why was it
inaugurated in that sorry state?"
The question has brought into analysis several critical
accountability issues. The defective installation affected the quality and
safety of turf. Instead of dealing with the root problems, the people
responsible used nails to plaster wrinkles—a temporary yet dangerous fix.
An investigation was launched in May 2023, but like in most
incidences of embezzlement of public money, that never got its way. Clear
negligence on the part of the authority that would not move to correct this,
afraid of harming athletes. Notwithstanding public concern over the issue to
date, nothing has been done, which draws a very alarming trend of squandering
public tax money without much care for its consequences.
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