Johar Town hockey stadium’s employees unpaid for a year

KARACHI: The country’s national game hockey is passing through very difficult time as far as financial matters are concerned. Up to 12 employees of Johar Town Hockey Stadium in Lahore have not been paid their salaries for more than one year, ‘The News’ learnt on Sunday.

Informed sources mentioned that the operational system of Johan Town Stadium has nothing to do with Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) as it is owned by Lahore Development Authority (LDA) which established this stadium with a synthetic turf in 2012. The employees belonging to LDA are all employed on contractual basis.

It is pertinent to note that employees of PHF (Lahore and Karachi) offices have been deprived of their monthly salaries for past two months.

The sources said that LDA completely neglected the Johar Town stadium. And due to the lack of funds the condition of the stadium is deteriorating day by day.

The 12 employees are stated to be between grades 4 to 17.

The sources said that LDA did not allocate any budget for the maintenance of the stadium nor for the salaries of its employees.

Even the utility bills of the stadium have been paid through earning from the rent paid by local teams which train and play matches here, said a source. But the rent is not enough for the maintenance and payment of salaries, he added.

The employees have filed a case in the labuor court for their rights.

They also appealed to the Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to take notice of delay in release of funds required for salaries and maintenance. They urged the authorities to concerned to allocate funds for the salaries of employees in the coming budget.

If the issue is not resolved, this beautiful stadium would be destroyed which was established just a few years ago, a source said.

Meanwhile, the PHF has not announced any details related to senior and junior teams’ training camps which were due to start in March.