Lahore Gymkhana pays Rs 5,000 a year for 100-plus acres worth up to Rs 218 billion; chairman says it should be Rs 10 million

Lahore Gymkhana Club pays the Punjab government Rs 5,000 a year to lease more than 100 acres of prime state land on the Mall, and its own chairman has told lawmakers that is not enough. Chairman Salman Siddique said the rent should be at least Rs 10 million a year, The Express Tribune reported. Dawn also covered the hearing.

The numbers

One acre is 8 kanals, so 100 acres is 800 kanals; convert other sizes with our plot size converter. Even Rs 10 million would be a tiny return on land valued at up to Rs 218 billion: about 0.005% a year at the top estimate. Our rental yield calculator shows what yield any rent gives on a property's value.

What happened at the hearing

The Punjab Assembly's Special Committee No. 6, chaired by MPA Samiullah Khan, met on Wednesday to ask how the concession survived for decades with no proper valuation, oversight or review of the lease terms. Members said the club's autonomy did not exempt it from accountability for using state land, and that protecting public assets was the job of the government departments meant to enforce lease conditions.

Siddique, who appeared with members of the club's management, said he was himself surprised by the rent given the size of the land and the club's much stronger finances today compared with the 1990s, when it struggled. He offered to hand over the records and cooperate with the inquiry.

Dawn reported that committee members put the low rent down to decades of oversight failures by successive governments.

What comes next

The committee is examining the lease and the departments responsible for it. Any change to the rent would need the Punjab government to revise the lease terms. Lahore homeowners can compare with what they pay on their own house using the property tax calculator.