‘Corrupt officers have ruined 150-year-old railways’

Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed on Friday that the 150-year-old historic department of the Pakistan Railways has been ruined by its corrupt and lazy officialdom so much so that now it is not able clear salaries of its staff or advisors.
The judge said that Pakistan Railways was a vital department of the county and now it was on the verge of ruin only due to mismanagement on part of its fat-minded officers. The court was annoyed on non-compliance of its orders for clearance of Rs 4.5 million legal fees of 60 legal advisors of railways and false promises and pledges and time seeking tactics of the its lawyers. The judge was enraged when like previous several hearings, railways’ counsel Sarfraz Ahmed Cheema tried to seek more time to do the needful on the contention that the department lacked funds. The judge, who was not expecting such a request in view of “promises” made by the counsel on behalf of the department in the last two dates, said, “Railways has become a den of corruption and foundries were being built on its prized land in this course. Everyone is slumbering on this looting and wants to share his bit to scrape the 150-year-old department and its history”.
With that the court gave one week’s time to the railways counsel to pay the dues of the legal advisors. Earlier on Tuesday, Abdul Majeed Anjum, assistant law officer of railways, appearing in the court, said the entire due payment had been sanctioned but not paid until now.
The petitions were filed by Arshad Virk and other lawyers who have been serving railways as legal advisors at the divisional level and their salaries of the last two years were not paid on the pretext that railways was facing some “financial difficulties”. Virk, who worked as legal advisor at Sheikupura Divisional Office railways, said that it had become impossible for them to meet daily expenses, as they had not been paid salaries for the last two years.