ISLAMABAD – The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Railways was informed on Tuesday that trains in the country could stop at any time as Pakistan Railways (PR) had diesel reserves for a day only. Muhammad Shafi, Railways member finance, told the committee that met with Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the chair that PR purchased diesel on credit from Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and now total credit had exceeded the amount Rs 900 million.
“We have diesel reserves for one day only, and if PSO refuses to provide us diesel on credit, railways’ operations will be suspended immediately,” Shafi said. He told the committee that railways must have minimum oil reserves for 35 days. Meanwhile, the standing committee approved a charter of demands for absolving Pakistan Railways from paying loans amounting to Rs 56 billion.
The committee asked the government in the charter that it should take responsibility of paying off Rs 16 billion foreign debt and write off Rs 40 billion loans, the domestic debt to be paid by Pakistan Railways to the State Bank of Pakistan. The committee proposed that separate funds should be allocated to save the infrastructure from degradation.
The committee further said that new locomotives should be inducted and diesel should be purchased on an emergency basis. Finance Secretary Waqar Masood told the committee that he would discuss the demands of the committee with cabinet’s committee on restructuring. He also assured the committee that the cabinet’s Rs 11 billion financial assistance to railways was a loan, which would be converted into an interest-free debt. The secretary finance added that the IMF and other donors were following go-slow policy in matters related to Pakistan due to the government’s failure to get the RGST bill passed from parliament.
The committee further recommended that an account of Rs 12.5 billion for salaries should be maintained separately, which should have complete financial support of the government. The committee was also told that 600 people had been named in the Exit Control List for being involved in NATO missing containers’ case. The committee was informed that around 7,400 containers had been found missing, which caused a loss of Rs 19 billion. Raising objections to the formation of the board of directors, the committee said selection should be made transparently and include professional people.
