‘Bad’ deals: Railways can buy engines from Chinese company, LHC told

Petitioner says the company has been blacklisted globally.

LAHORE:

Pakistan Railways on Thursday told the Lahore High Court that the Supreme Court had allowed the purchase of locomotives from a Chinese company.

The counsel for Pakistan Railways said that the SC had taken a suo motu notice on the issue, however, at the end of the proceedings the court had allowed the railways to purchase the locomotives from the Chinese company. He urged the court to dismiss the petition against the purchase of the locomotives being non-maintainable.

About involvement of Railways officials in a scrap sale scandal, the counsel said the investigation was ongoing and no allegations had been proven so far.

The court directed the petitioner’s counsel to file his rejoinder by the next hearing (September 3).

The petition was filed by Advocate Feroze Shah Gillani saying that Pakistan Railways was suffering a Rs35 billion loss due to corruption by its senior officials. He said the department had scrapped 500 engines and had now entered a contract for leasing engines from a Chinese company.

The petitioner alleged that the Chinese company had been blacklisted worldwide. He requested the court to restrain the Railways from getting the locomotives from the company.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2012.