LAHORE: Punjab Provincial Minister for Youth Affairs, Sports, Archeology and Tourism Malik Taimoor Masood has denied speculation surrounding social media about the removal of the artificial turf from the National Hockey Stadium for the Pakistan Tehreek rally -e-Insaf (PTI).
When a video of fielders scraping artificial turf at the national hockey stadium went viral on social media on Thursday, speculation arose that it was made in preparation for PTI president Imran Khan’s August 13 meeting.
13#Lahore #NationalHockey Stadium #HockeyTurf #PTI #Jalsa #Taar pic.twitter.com/fahQG5DJkk
— Taar.TV (@taar_tv) August 11, 2022
Going by the propaganda, Punjab Sports Minister Malik Taimoor clarified that the artificial turf ‘change’ is part of the master planning and the national stadium will get the FIH International Hockey Federation approved artificial turf worth 15 million for December.
“First of all, I would like to make it clear that there is no such thing as artificial turf being removed for the PTI Rally. We are moving it to Sargodha and it will be installed there. It is part of our master planning and the tender will be approved in a couple of days,” said Taimoor.
“The National Stadium will have the latest generation artificial turf in three or four months.
This is one of the largest stadiums in the world, so we are planning to install a technologically advanced artificial turf here,” he maintained.
It is important to note that while the removal of the artificial turf was initially planned for March or April of this year, the PC-One was revised due to the rise in the exchange rates of the US dollar against the Pakistani rupee.
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