Report: Delhi reclaims Gymkhana while Lahore elites retain 112-acre prime estate for Rs5,000 a year

LAHORE — A comparative investigation into colonial-era elite clubs reveals starkly contrasting legal actions between India and Pakistan. While India has ordered the historic Delhi Gymkhana Club to completely vacate its premises, the Lahore Gymkhana continues to occupy some of Punjab’s most expensive state land for a nominal annual rent of just Rs5,000.

Key Highlights

• India ordered the Delhi Gymkhana Club to vacate its land by June 5 under a public purpose clause.
• The Lahore Gymkhana spans 112 acres of prime state land worth an estimated Rs218.2 billion.
• The Lahore club pays a total annual rent of Rs5,000, averaging less than 50 paisas per kanal.
• Official audits revealed unapproved construction on the Lahore site and unpaid rent since 2011.
• Legal experts confirm the Punjab government has the absolute power to cancel the lease with a six-month notice.

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The Rs218 Billion Giveaway and Regulatory Violations

The Lahore Gymkhana sits on premium state land surrounded by The Mall, Jail Road, and Zafar Ali Road. While a fair market rent for the Rs218.2 billion estate is evaluated at Rs4.36 billion annually, the club continues to operate under a lease extended until 2050 at the colonial rate of Rs5,000 per year. Furthermore, the club occupies an extra three kanals beyond its official lease and has fenced off a three-and-a-half-acre cricket ground inside Lawrence Gardens without any legal grant or rent payment.

A Board of Revenue review discovered that the club constructed extensive facilities—including a clubhouse, swimming pool, guest blocks, and a café—without mandatory government permissions. Additionally, the club has failed to pay even its token rent, with default notices stretching back to 2011. Despite claiming independence from public funding, records show the private club accepted Rs64 million in structural gifts from former presidents and prime ministers over the decades.

Lahore Gymkhana Land Valuation vs. Actual Rent

Elite Capture and Institutional Secrecy

Membership rules firmly institutionalize the club as an enclave for the ruling class, granting automatic entry to civil servants of Grade 18 and above, military officers, and hereditary lines. The club has aggressively guarded its privacy, taking a Right to Information request all the way to the Lahore High Court to avoid public scrutiny. The court dismissed the club’s plea in January 2023, ruling that handing over billions in state land for Rs5,000 was an enormous public benefit that could not legally be justified.

This systemic favoritism is mirrored across the country. The Islamabad Club spreads over 352 acres while paying a mere three rupees per acre a month, and the administration in Multan is currently moving to slice 15 acres off the Central Cotton Research Institute to build yet another gymkhana. According to a UNDP report, such cheap land, tax breaks, and asset captures by Pakistan’s elite total $17.4 billion annually—nearly 6% of the entire economy.

Two-Tiered Enforcement and Alternative Public Uses

The leniency granted to elite clubs stands in sharp contrast to the state’s aggressive anti-encroachment drives against the poor. In Islamabad, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) used bulldozers to flatten informal settlements, leaving 25,000 low-income residents homeless in open defiance of a Supreme Court stay order. In Punjab, the newly formed Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (PERA) heavily fines and seals the kiosks of footpath vendors overnight, demonstrating a swift enforcement mechanism that stalls when confronting elite institutions.

Financial Contrast: Gymkhana Asset Value vs. Public Health

• Punjab Free Medicine Budget (2025-26): Rs79.5 Billion allocated for the entire province of 120 million people.
• Lahore Gymkhana Asset Value: Rs218.2 Billion.
• The Disparity: A single private golf-and-dining estate holds a land value nearly three times greater than the entire province’s annual budget for free healthcare medicine, while public hospitals in Rawalpindi face severe medicine supply shortages due to unpaid bills.

While Rawalpindi’s public hospitals struggle, the Punjab Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department has verified that Clause 6 of the 1996 lease grants the executive full authority to reclaim the gymkhana land via a six-month notice without paying any compensation for existing buildings. Urban planning experts suggest that instead of protecting a private fairway for a few hundred people, the state should cancel the lease and convert the massive acreage into a dense, Miyawaki-style public forest to naturally combat Lahore’s hazardous winter smog.

The report is based on Usama Khawer’s report published in Dawn.