Race Course Park Lahore

Jillani Park (formerly known as Race Course Park) is located in the city of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It is on the Jail Road in front of famous Services Hospital. It is famous for its floral exhibitions and artificial waterfall. Annual horse racing competitions are held in this park. Lahore Race Club racecourse was initially at Jail Road, Lahore, the current site of Jilani Park. In 1976, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government asked the club to move its races away from the Jail Road course, but it remained there until 1980, when it was compelled to leave. Race Course Park was inaugurated by Lt General Ghulam Jilani Khan at that time Governor Punjab on 3rd October, 1985.
Address: Jail Road, Lahore, Pakistan .

Officials: There is one security officer and one sanitary supervisor and 65 security guard and 117 gardeners working for this park.

Area: This park covers 88 acres and 6 canals containing two cricket grounds, 5 canteens, gym and fitness centers, a study hall, a beautiful lake, small open areas, walking and jogging tracks and a lot of trees, flowers and shrubs.

Attractions:

Walkway and Jogging track: The length of walkway of hard tiles is 5.5 km while jogging track is completely made of clay and its length is approximately 2.75 km and it is one of the larger jogging tracks in Asia which is made up of pure mud and clay only clay. And its maintenance is done properly and is watered 3 times a day, in morning, evening and at night.
Landscaping: The style of landscaping in the park is of Japanese nature. Japanese landscape design reflects the pure beauty of nature. There are about 80000 plants & flowers planted in a small area of 6 canals. Some of the plants and trees are also imported from the foreign countries. About 200 types of trees and the shrubs are imported which are very rare and expensive.
Artificial Hill: An artificial hill is made behind the lake. Hill is decorated with the different types of plants and stairs made up of stones are also provided which gives a different look to the hill. The Hill has two tops and between these two tops a beautiful clock is formed.
Lake: A very attractive and a beautiful lake is provided within the park which has a shape like the map of Pakistan. Lake can be used for boating.
Activities for All: Children swings, cradles and slides are installed at different places in the park. Gent’s gymnasium is located behind the lake, which is fully equipped with the fitness and exercising machines. A Fitness Centre for women is also provided, for the security and the privacy of women, the Fitness Centre for women is totally covered from all the sides. Where women feel free, comfort and ease for exercise. A Training Centre is also provided for this purpose where training is given for fitness and health to the new youngsters coming to the gym. A very beautiful study hall is provided in the park. Different Islamic and general books are provided for the readers and also different kind of newspapers are placed there on daily bases which link the readers with whole the world. For the religious activities and a very beautiful Mosque is also provided in the park.


Nation of Sep 29, 2009 – Don't modify Race Course Park layout, LHC asks PHA: The Lahore High Court on Monday restrained Parks and Horticulture Authority from making any kind of modification in the construction and layout of Race Course Park besides issuing contempt of court notice to Director General PHA for failing to abide by courts earlier order about opening of parks gates. Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed passed this order while hearing a petition filed by a local lawyer Shafqat Mehmood Chohan pleading that the PHA had decided to construct a mini golf course in the area of Gate No 3, which has now been closed for visitors. On Monday, Director General PHA Raheel Ahmad Siddiqui appeared before the court and told it that PHA was not going to construct a modern mini golf course at Race Course Park. The court inquired him that why gates were not opened despite courts order couple of months ago. No change was made in the lay-out of park over 25 years but what had happened then that rapid changes were being made in park that were destroying its beauty. DG could not give a satisfactory answer to the court that in return served a contempt notice to him. Petitioner Chohan argued that parking area that was located at Gate No-3 had been shifted to Gate No-1 of the park. He pointed out that the golf course was being constructed to facilitate the children of bureaucrats living in GOR-1 while a large number of visiting children were being deprived of different types of swings installed in the park. He requested the court to restrain PHA from constructing the golf club and protect beautification of the park that was a visiting place for thousands of people.

Dawn of April 21, 2012 – Photo Show Opens at Racecourse: Organised by the Media Foundation in collaboration with the Lahore Photojournalists Association, the exhibition titled ‘End polio’ is sponsored by Unicef. Main focus of the event is to sensitise photojournalists about importance of the campaign against polio. At least 35 photographers from all over the province took part in the competition with 1,200 photos. Of these 150 were short-listed for the competition and 50 were selected for the exhibition. Four Lahore-based photographers won the competition. Freelance photographer Shafiq Malik won the first prize of Rs100,000, Azhar Hussain Jafri of Dawn won the second prize of Rs75,000 and Waseem Niaz and Shahbaz Malik of the Daily Express shared the third prize of Rs25,000 each. The winners were also awarded certificates.

Sources:
whitegreen.com
Wikipedia.com