A cricket ground on an amenity plot named after a recent captain of the Pakistani team, Sarfaraz Ahmed, has been a centre of controversy since a college started to function on the same plot around two years ago.
The Sarfaraz Ahmed Cricket Academy and the Government College for Women are both situated on plot ST-7 spreading over seven acres in North Nazimabad Block N. Besides the academy and the college, a primary school under the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the office of a KMC deputy director education are also located on the ground, popularly known as Kaka Ground. Some also call it Sakhi Hassan Gymkhana.
Residents of the area say that the plot was being used as a playground for decades. However, the acting principal of the college, which started operations two years ago and its building was constructed between 2010 and 2019, claims that the entire plot belongs to the college.The principal claims that the ground was an integral part of the college but the cricket academy’s management says that some piece of land was carved out from the ground for the purpose of a college building under the supervision of former town nazim Mumtaz Hamid. According to the cricket academy, the college was supposed to be built on another amenity land but somehow its site plan was changed and it was relocated to a portion of the ground.
On January 26, the incharge principal of the college, Prof Haseen Fatima, who mentions herself as the project director of the college on her visiting card, moved an application to the Taimuria police station requesting the police to ensure safe environment for her college students.
She stated in her application that on January 25, the 4th Sindh College Games were being held on the ground when a person named Naveed-ul-Amin threatened her and hurled abusive language.
She added that another person named Rajab made video of girl students and locked the entrance of the ground from the college despite being told not to do so. The principal asked the police to provide safe environment to the college students.
Interestingly, two years ago on February 7, 2020, Prof Fatima had filed a similar complaint to the District Central deputy commissioner through the Directorate of College Education Karachi. In addition to the applications for safe environment, the principal has also alleged that some land grabbers have been trying to capture the ground on the pretext of running the cricket academy. On November 16, 2021, she wrote to the college directorate that when the college was handed over to her by the college education works department, its playground had already been grabbed by two men, Zia Ahmed and Jalil Khan, in the name of Sarfaraz Ahmed Cricket Academy.
