The meeting to revive the Pakistan Railway (PR) failed after no concrete decision or proposal was taken to revive the loss-making entity.
Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, after attending the Cabinet Committee on Restructuring (CCOR) meeting, headed by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said he came out empty handed since the railways fell Rs 20 billion short of the subsidy for its revival. The Finance Ministry committed to extend Rs 25 billion while Pakistan Railways demanded Rs 45 billion for the current fiscal year.
Bilour said he had been asked to utilize railway resources by auctioning its 167,690 acres land that “I am not a property broker to sell land which is not controlled by railways” since most railways land was under the control of provinces.
The minister said if the Finance Division had extended the Rs 11.5 billion bail out package committed in June 2010; the situation would have been different from today. He said due to not releasing Rs 11.5 billion in June 2010, the government will have to give railways Rs 27 billion to pay 80,000 in-service and 140,000 retired railway pensioners their salaries and pensions for the current fiscal year.
Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour on Friday discussed the restructuring process and plan for the comprehensive restructuring of railway and hiring consultants to revive it. The meeting proved unfruitful since no concrete decision or proposal came out to revive the loss making entity.
The Finance Minister in the June 24 meeting with Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour had agreed to release Rs 11.5 billion by the next month under the bailout package approved by the federal cabinet in December last year.
