Corruption has brought Pakistan Railways to the brink of collapse and its failure cannot be attributed to faulty locomotives alone, CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Wednesday. Heading a two-member Supreme Court bench hearing a suo motu case on the non-payment of salaries and pension to the employees and workers of Pakistan Railways, he said the officials responsible for corruption will be sent to jails. He said the appointments in railways through the practice of pick and choose destroyed the administrative mechanism of the railways department. He said forensic audit of the department was necessary to determine the responsible.
“Why is Railways only interested in purchasing new locomotives?” he questioned.
The court directed the National NAB to initiate inquiry against the officials nominated in the Railways audit report and all responsible should be prosecuted. The court ordered that a Railways board be formed without any further delay, adding that the notification of the board’s formation be issued at the earliest.
The court asked the Railways chairman to prepare a detailed report containing information on how many engines Railways currently had, how many had completed their lives, how many engines had been repaired and how many engines could be repaired and at what cost.
The court directed that the report be submitted with the Supreme Court’s Registrar Office within 10 days. It also said that permission should be obtained from the authority concerned for conducting a forensic audit of the Railways and then the task of the audit be given to a private audit firm.
The court asked the Railways chairman to submit a detailed report on Railways land illegally occupied within seven days, adding that the report should also contain information on how much land was occupied where and by whom. Standing Committee on Railways Chairman Ayaz Sadiq told the court that the government had given Rs 12 billion to the Railways, however it spent the money on other things instead of getting the locomotives repaired.
