LAHORE: The provincial Minister of Punjab for Youth Affairs, Sports, Archaeology and Tourism, Malik Taimoor Masood has denied the speculations surrounding social media regarding the removal of astroturf from the National Hockey Stadium for the rally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

 As a video of groundsmen scraping off the astroturf of the national hockey stadium went viral on social media on Thursday, speculations emerged that it was done in preparation for PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s August 13 gathering. Following the propaganda, the Sports minister of Punjab Malik Taimoor clarified that the ‘shifting’ of the astroturf is part of the master planning and the national stadium will get the Federation International Hockey FIH-approved astroturf worth 15 million by December. 

“First of all, I would like to make it clear that there is no such thing that the astroturf is being removed for the PTI Rally. We are just shifting it to Sargodha and it will be installed there. It is a part of our master planning and the tender for that will be approved in a couple of days,” Taimoor stated. 

“The National Stadium will get the state-of-the-art astroturf in three to four months. This is one of the biggest stadiums in the world so, we are planning to install a technologically advanced astroturf here,” he maintained. 

It is important to note that while the removal of astroturf was initially planned for March or April of this year, the PC-One was revised due to the spike in US Dollar exchange rates against the Pakistani Rupee.

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 12 2022

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