The government has put an oxygen mask on the badly gasping Railways. The sufferings of Pakistan Railways have increased the sufferings of commuters who face great difficulty in travelling due to closure of ten branch lines without prior notice. Trains to Pakpattan, Sargodha, Narowal were closed down during last week. Sargodha Express & Chenab Express had stopped operation during last week.
Reason for gross closure was non-availability of locomotives. Pakistan Railways has always been a white elephant for the national exchequer. It always ate up resources and delivered poor services to a majority of the travellers.
All this happened due to inefficient and poor management, inappropriate maintenance facilities, weak and sluggish ticket checking, overstaffing to the last extent, lack of trained staff. Resuscitation moves should be welcomed but are a far cry.
During 2010-2011, the deficit piled up to Rs 52.5 billion and failure to pay PSO dues brought PR to the brink of bankruptcy. Although fresh blood has been infused into simmering Pakistan Railways, some concrete steps must be taken to wipe out inefficiency from every nook and corner of department. While providing Rs two billion per month for salaries and pension, government must check and control the personnel requirement since overstaffing has sunk the ship of Pakistan Railways in an unfathomable sea of corruption
With the present setup, there is not an iota of hope of things turning right. Resuscitation moves were made many times in past but to no avail. The entity was at the verge of default many times in past.
The complete collapse, I fear, is not far away as money seepage in every segment of this department is visible to all. One can see how overloaded are the buggies when a train departs from platform of big city’s station.
Where does all this money go? Indeed, something is wrong from the bottom-up. Fare collection is not 100%. So many people travel without buying tickets and by just buttering the palm of the ticket collector harming the department severely.
The system needs to be made more transparent and free of faults. Technical know-how of staff is also questionable as, every now and then, serious accidents occur causing loss of precious lives. Well trained and educated staff is the need of hour for PR. Privatisation of this department in different phases may bring some positive changes and the department known for carrying most of the passengers around the country may turn to life.
IFTIKHAR SHAHEEN MIRZA
Islamabad
