In the introduction to second part of his article "A regulatory framework for Pakistan Railways - II" carried by the newspaper on Friday, Dr Omer Javed has highlighted a very key point in relation to state of Pakistan Railways. According to him, "Pakistan Railways (PR) has been working more or less like a monopoly with very little participation of private sector. Hence, there is very little competition being faced by PR. In these circumstances, it should be the responsibility of the proposed Economic Regulator of Railways (EROR) to regulate rail tariffs and services, and in turn, set the standards under which prices would be regulated in a transparent and objective manner."
That Pakistan Railways is a white elephant is a fact; it is expensive to maintain and difficult to dispose of. Pakistan Railways is something that always requires massive doses of subsidies and injections but giving no signs of a turnaround. Dr Javed's appears to be a 'creative' solution. The government must give it a serious thought.
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