Minister terms SC order new lifeline for Pakistan Railways

Chief justice has ordered clearance of all pending cases in next two months

LAHORE: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad has termed an order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan a new lifeline for the railways as the entity is stuck in different court cases along with multiple stay orders.

“Pakistan Railways has received a head start after 28 years thanks to the chief justice of Pakistan, who ordered the authorities to clear all pending cases of the railways in the next two months,” said Ahmad at a press conference on Friday.

Railways is currently facing more than 1,600 cases in civil and other courts and the chief justice has directed all the courts to decide each and every pending case and vacate the stay orders given to different individuals and companies. Majority of the cases were linked to the railways land.

“Among these, 123 cases are of top priority, all of which are pertaining to land grabbing under different terms,” Ahmad said. “Once cleared, the value of these pieces of land can rise to billions of rupees.”

The minister pointed out that the railways did not disregard the fact that its own officers were also involved in such scams and called it a fault at their end.

“It is not possible to allot railways’ land to private parties on bad conditions without the involvement of railways’ personnel,” he suggested. “Black sheep are present in every department and we have to go after them.”

The minister added that the railways had targeted to recover Rs2 billion from the former management of Pak-Business Express train, which was Pakistan’s first passenger train in collaboration with the private sector.



Apart from this, a case pertaining to the Lahore Shalimar Hospital was also pending. “Both cases are being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau but the pace of the probe is very slow,” the minister lamented. “We can approach the chief justice for settling these cases too in the future.”

Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda regretted that the previous government had made many mistakes, one of which was to appoint Mehar Ali Shah as the Indus water commissioner.

“Previous governments were pro-Indian and they appointed a wrong person to this crucial post,” Vawda said, adding that currently he was reviewing briefings on water issues.

“I will take a right decision, no matter how much time it may consume,” he emphasised. “Water is a crucial subject and I will never accept any recommendations.”