Karachi: The standing committee on Railways held its 9th meeting today, Tuesday in the Committee Room of the office of the Divisional Superintendent Pakistan Railways Karachi under the Chairmanship of Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan, MNA.
The meeting approved the minutes of the previous meeting. This was followed by an in-depth review of the progress on the Committee’s earlier recommendations. The report of the previous sub-committee was presented before the committee which were adopted by the committee . The performance of the sub-committees was appreciated by the committee.
The vommittee appointed a sub-committee to look into the matters of encroachments/ leases of Railways lands under the convenership of Mr. Ramesh Lal, MNA and its other Members would be Mr. Waseem Qadir, Mr. Ahmed Saleem Siddiqui and Mr. Muhammad Jamal Ahsan Khan, MNA.
The committee showed displeasure on the absence of the Minister for Railways from the meeting. The committee also raised objection on the appointment of two junior officers as Divisional Superintendents, Karachi and Lahore by replacing the two competent senior officers.
A Member of the committee apprised the committee that there was an audio leak regarding corruption of currently appointed Divisional Superintendent, Karachi when he was the Divisional Superintendent of Multan. The committee recommended the Chief Executive Officer, Pakistan Railways to present the enquiry report of that audio leak in the next meeting.
Moreover, the committee also recommended to brief regarding criteria of appointment of a Divisional Superintendent in Pakistan Railways.
The mover of a starred question, referred to the committee by the Speaker, asked about the number of trains stop at Khairpur Railway Station and details of repairing of the track.
The Secretary replied that 10 trains used to stop in Khairpur Railway Station, 14 kms track had been rehabilitated in 2024 and 18 million were incurred on the renovation of the station. The committee recommended to increase the number of trains stop and give priority in the repairing of the track of Khairpur in the coming budget.
The committee also recommended to fix a special train which would travel from Hyderabad to Karachi and Karachi to Hyderabad on daily basis.
Lastly, a member of the committee raised the issue of delay in salaries and pensions in Pakistan Railway. The Secretary, Ministry of Railways apprised the committee that the issue of delay in payment of salaries had been resolved, however, Pakistan Railways was the only federal government department whose pension was not given and only grant in aid used to be given which did not meet the demand of Pakistan Railways.
The committee recommended that the federal government would include Pakistan Railways pension in its books rather than giving grant in aid.
