Pakistan Railways: NGO calls for removal of federal railways minister

Petitioner wants control of railways to be given to the National Logistics Cell of the army.

KARACHI: In a petition filed with the Sindh High Court (SHC) in Wednesday, an NGO moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) to have the federal railway minister removed after accusing him of denying the public access to cheap transport and violating Articles 4, 8, 15 and 34 of the Constitution.

The United Human Rights Commission Pakistan, not to be confused with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, filed a petition through its honorary secretary, Rana Faizul Hasan, seeking the removal of the federal railways minister and records about land and engines for the last three years from the Pakistan Railways.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh listened as the petitioner who submitted that the Pakistan Railways was once a profit-making organisation that was on the brink of disaster due to the minister.

He compared Pakistan’s railway system to that in other parts of the world and felt that the minister was bent on stopping trains and closing the entire system. He cited the federal law secretary, federal finance minister, federal railways minister, communications secretary, secretary of law, Pakistan railways general manager and Sindh chief secretary as respondents in the case. The petitioner asked the court to tell the respondents to revive the railways, enforce the Railway Regulatory Authority Ordinance 2002 and to hand over control of the Pakistan Railways to the National Logistics Cell - a subsidiary of the army.

After a very brief hearing, the bench ordered its office to summon the federal communications secretary and general manager of the Pakistan Railways to defend the petition at a date to be fixed later.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2011.