Ahead of auctions to pvt companies, railway unions warn of strikes

The RBI, an alliance of 14 unions of Pakistan Railways, will hold a rally on March 20 at the railways’ headquarters.

KARACHI:

The Rail Bachao Ittehad (RBI) has warned of a wheel jam strike at the Pakistan Railways if the administration does not take back its trains from private companies and stop further privatisation.

“We will stop the rail services from Peshawar to Karachi and Karachi to Chaman if our demands are not addressed,” said RBI’s Supreme Council member Muqadar Zaman while addressing a rally on Tuesday.

The RBI, which is an alliance of 14 unions of Pakistan Railways, will hold a rally on March 20 at the railways’ headquarters in Lahore and decide their strategy against the privatisation of trains.

Zaman, who is also the Railway Mazdur Union Karachi chief, said that rallies were held in all seven divisions of the railways. “The administration does not want to run the railway and that is why they are deliberately creating problems in trains,” alleged Zaman. “If they want to get rid of the responsibility, then they should hand it over to RBI and we will run it.”

According to Zaman, the railway will hold an auction of four more trains on March 2 at Lahore, in which the Super Express, Fareed Express and two others will be privatised.

“Privatisation has destroyed the Karachi Electric Supply Company and it will ruin the railways as well,” said the Railway Workers Union general secretary, Muhammad Naseem Rao. He added that the private companies will start downsizing the labourers. The Railway Workers Union chairman, Manzur Ahmed Razi, suggested that the private companies should bring new engines and carriages instead of “taking control of already running trains which will do no good”.

The protesters also demanded the immediate release of the travelling allowances for railway workers. There are approximately 86,000 railway workers across the country and 16,000 in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th, 2012.