LAHORE: Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, while addressing the inaugural ceremony of residential apartments for class-III and IV employees of Pakistan Railways (PR) on Sunday, said that governments should come and go with their respect intact.
Rafique while discussing Pakistan Railways’ progress, said that the department’s future is positively bright as they are headed in the right direction but added that more than one decade is required to transform the railways. The minister stressed that the railways should be kept away from politics.
Commenting on the upcoming general elections, Saad said we are collectively responsible to ensure timely elections.
He further said that elections should be contested on the basis of performance, instead of leveling allegations and using abusive language. He said that using such tactics would further divide the nation.
He also said that elections should be held in a peaceful and transparent atmosphere by shunning the culture of confrontation.
The minister said that disqualification of Nawaz Sharif had damaged the reputation of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan as nobody benefitted from the entire episode. He also said that respect of vote should be maintained during elections. He further said that our party would not allow Pakistan to become a banana republic.
Moreover, he condemned the incident where unknown assailants attacked the residence of a judge and said that security forces were probing the incident.
He urged all the political parties to ensure that the general elections were held on time, adding that hopefully power would be transferred from one democratic government to another in a smooth manner.
The minister further said that it was the responsibility of everybody, including politicians, to respect each other.
He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had made every effort to put an end to load shedding in Pakistan by adding more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
The minister said that he was satisfied with his performance while working for PR, adding that the credit of restoring train service in Pakistan went to the officers and workers of railways.
Speaking on the occasion, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that he was a witness to the uplift of the railways and paid tribute to the railways minister for his contributions in this connection. Pakistan Railways Chief Executive Officer Javaid Anwar also spoke on the occasion.