12 November 2013
Construction of a new cricket stadium in Pakistan’s capital has been halted after the country’s prime minister took issue with the site.
Newspaper The Nation reported that Nawaz Sharif was driving in Islamabad when he noticed the construction site and asked who gave permission for it amid concern over “the beauty of the capital”.
He ordered for construction to stop and for other land to be allocated to the stadium.
Test matches like this one between Pakistan and India will have to wait a while longer before they happen at Islamabad’s new stadium (Credit: Powru/Wikimedia)
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has already spent more than $1.1m on the project in Islamabad despite the site having been earmarked to become a national park, reports The Nation.
Changing construction site now will “spell disaster for the national exchequer”, the paper wrote, as the stadium was being funded by the government.

