ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Railways Wednesday deferred the discussion on the Public Sector Development Programme for the next meeting as the Minister for Railways and the secretary could not attend the meeting.

The NA panel meeting held here under the chairmanship of Muhammad Moeen Wattoo to review and discuss the PSDP-related matters of the Pakistan Railways (PR) for year 2020-21, but pended the discussion on the agenda.

The participants also pended the discussions of the implementation status on the recommendations made by the previous two meetings and the PR’s response due to shortage of time.

The Committee constituted a Sub-Committee to look into the matters of the implementation of the recommendations made by the committee as previous sub-committee tenure had lapsed.

The committee on the request of the PR officials pended the discussion on the PSDP proposal submitted by the Ministry of Railways as the secretary and the minister were unable to attend the meeting due to another meeting scheduled under the direction of the cabinet.

The panel was informed by the officials that the chief secretary Balochistan government, along with other relevant officials summoned by the committee, were unable to attend the meeting.

The committee decided that the matters related to Balochistan will be discussed in the presence of relevant officer of the provincial government.

The chief executive officer PR, while briefing the panel, informed that the ministry will ensure clearance of outstanding dues of the retired railways employees by the end of June, 2021.

The Divisional Superintendent Railways, Rawalpindi briefed the Committee on the working of his division.

The divisional superintendents appreciated the working of the sub-Committee as the said division has recovered the Railways land from the encroachers under its direction.

Later, the Committee visited the control room and Railways station, Rawalpindi, where the divisional superintendent awarded the shield to the Committee members and the chairman.

The meeting was attended by MNA Sheikh Rashid Shafique, Aftab Jehangir, Engineer Sabir Hussain Kaim Khani, Muhammad Hamid Hameed, Muhammad Khan Daha, Ramesh Lal, Muhammad Bashir Khan, and Nusrat Wahid.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021