The Royal Palm Golf and Country Club management Tuesday (today) complained that the railway staff has allegedly stolen several items from the club including liquor bottles, cigars, water coolers, LCDs, coffee dispensers, water dispensers, items of furniture and sports equipment.
Meanwhile, while addressing a press conference, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said, “Royal Palm Club management did not pay their rent for 2 years.”
Rafique added, “Apart from its financial obligations in the form of annual fee’s, the club had also not fulfilled its promise of constructing a five-star hotel on the premises, the revenue from which was to be shared with Pakistan Railways, he added.”
The Lahore High Court (LHC), the other day, passed a judgment, pertaining to the case dissolving the agreement between the Royal Palm Golf and County Club and the Railway Ministry, that Royal Palm Golf and County Club would temporally run under the former administration.
Royal Palm Golf and Country Club Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ramzan Sheikh said on Wednesday that the Railways authorities received only Rs 240 from 1980 to 2000 for the land now under his club’s control while the Royal Palm has paid them Rs 550 million since taking over the club in 2001.
He was talking to the Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami in his Channel 24 programme DNA on Wednesday night.
“The Railway Police has no mandate to take over the control of the club by launching a raid,” Sheikh said and added that the raid was carried out under cover of darkness in the early hours of the day which shows the Railways’ mala fide intentions.
