Poor performance: Pakistan Railways employees get tough love from minister

Saad Rafique blames depart failures on employees, previous govt.

RAWALPINDI:

Much like his trains, Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique turned up 35 minutes late to address a gathering of the Pakistan Railway employees’ unions on Tuesday.

Owing to the suicide blasts in the capital’s lower courts on Monday, security arrangements were reinforced and around 700 police officials, including the elite force, were stationed at the Rawalpindi Railway Station. The Railway Police was also on duty, and walk-through gates were installed at all entry and exit points of the station.

Although Rafique was the chief guest at the occasion, employees chanted slogans in favour of Ishtiaq Assi, a retired clerk who is still a union leader.

Commencing his speech on a positive note, Rafique announced that China would invest $4 billion on replacing railway tracks all the way from Peshawar to Karachi.

The cheery air slowly turned chillier, as the minister started appropriating blame for the sorry state of railways to the department’s employees, sparing no one, from the lower-tier employees to high-ups and the former government.

He called them ‘dodgers’ and the officers appointed by the former government ‘thieves’, warning them to work for their bread, failing which they be booted out. “I won’t announce any kind of perks and privileges unless we steer the railways out of this crisis. If you work you will get your salaries, otherwise such people don’t belong in this department,” warned Rafique.

He complained that whenever he tried to fire the ‘thieves’, he was accused of favouritism and trying to bring in his own people while the former were restored by the courts.

“I will quit politics if anyone is able to prove that I have recruited even a single person from my constituency or family,” challenged Rafique.

He commented that the situation would not be so deplorable today had all the department’s employees performed their duties with honesty, including the recruiters. “It is shameful that the director of the legal cell was not a law graduate,” he added.

“As minister, I inherited loans worth billions. We have to pay Rs72 billion to a US bank, overcome a deficit of Rs30 billion and modernise the outdated and debilitated railway system,” he said.

Speaking about structural changes, he announced that the posts of director general and assistant general manager would be abolished, leaving behind the only high-level functional position of general manager.

Verging on bankruptcy, our railway officers live in big houses while the business trains default by Rs380 million. The Indian railway, on the other hand, is a profitable department and a success story.

He also condemned bombing of railway coaches, causing innocent people to lose their lives. “Killing innocent people to get your rights is not the right way to go about it.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2014.