THURSDAY DECEMBER 01: Pakistan Railways: CJP seeks details of land under illegal occupation

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday sought details of illegally occupied land of Pakistan Railways, asking the four provincial Chief Secretaries to submit a report in this regard within 10 days. The court also issued directives to National Accountability Bureau to take up the matter of Pakistan Railways' corrupt officials in the light of a forensic audit report.
A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a suo motu case regarding payment of salaries and pension to Pakistan Railways employees. Former federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Chairman Railways Shafique Ullah, Chairman Standing Committee on Railways Ayaz Sadiq, Attorney General for Pakistan and Prosecutor General NAB appeared before the court.
During the course of hearing, the bench directed Pakistan Railways to submit in the SC Registrar's office a report pertaining to quantity of locomotives, dysfunctional locomotives and expenditure on their maintenance with the help of former railway's Minister Shiekh Rasheed Ahmad in seven days.
The Chairman Railways apprised the bench that presently there were 494 locomotives and 60 percent of them were dysfunctional. According to him, the maintenance of these locomotives will not be cost effective. Therefore the dysfunctional locomotives need to be replaced with new ones.
He told the court that as many as 20 locomotives had been repaired and the department was waiting for the release of funds for the maintenance of out-of-order engines. Ayaz Sadiq submitted that Pakistan Railways was given a bailout package of Rs 12 billion, which did not work out positively in the absence of a Railway Board. A notification to that effect had not been issued since 2008 as Federal Ministry of Law and Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) failed to reach a decision.
Member Railway Board told the bench that no new policy could be formulated in the absence of the Board. On the occasion, Sheikh Rashid told the bench that he was being pressurised to stay away from the case, adding that each locomotive could be repaired since railway contained spare parts of locomotives. Sheikh added that Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) Taxila and Risalpur had shown their interest in this regard. Moreover, Railways also has the facility to repair dysfunctional locomotives as it has already repaired 20 engines, according to him.
Presenting a report to the bench, counsel for Pakistan Railways Rai Nawaz Kharal pleaded that the issue of corruption in relation to sale of scrapped material was being minutely probed and efforts were under way for the recovery of railways' land from land mafia. "Railways will be restored at any cost and corrupt elements would be sent behind the bars," the CJP observed.
While addressing the counsel for Pakistan Railways, the Chief Justice asked why the law is not being invoked to dispossess Railways occupied land and why the railways is interested in the purchase of new locomotives instead of second-hand items. The CJP remarked corruption was the chief reason behind Railways' woes, proposing a forensic audit of with a view to highlighting the discrepancies and fixating responsibility.
According to him, unless internal administrative issues are not resolved no progress can be made. Appointment of blue-eyed officers destroyed the administrative structure of Pakistan Railways. The Chief Justice asked Sheikh Rashid to make joint efforts for the railways' rehabilitation with the help of officers and concerned engineers. He also urged the union to play its positive role in putting Pakistan Railways back on track. The hearing was adjourned for three weeks.