A train on Narowal section was restored on Sunday and named after poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
More than 1,600 people would travel by the Faiz Ahmad Faiz passenger train daily, Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique said after inaugurating the service.
Family members of Faiz, including Saleema Hashmi and Muniza Hashmi, and Pakistan Railways General Manager Anjum Pervaiz were also present.
Rafique said the train had been named after Faiz to pay tribute to the late poet. He said more trains would be restored on Karachi-Sukkur section.
He steps had been taken to tackle terrorist attacks on train.
The minister said Pakistan Railways had sent a train to bring Sikh pilgrims from India to Lahore but the Indian government did not allow it. The pilgrims had therefore to walk to Wagha border, he said.
Rafique said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan’s rhetoric of change had been exposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). He said the KP government had done nothing for its people. It had just raised the salaries of its cabinet members by up to 150 per cent, he said.
He said Khan had failed to honour the people’s mandate. He said realising that it was losing popularity, the PTI had resorted to staging protest demonstrations.
He said instead of organising agitation the PTI should work for the welfare of people, he said.
He said Pakistan Railways had received an application to make arrangements for a train march by Awami Muslim League President Sheikh Rashid.
“We are looking at the request… we will try to accommodate them without inconveniencing the regular commuters.”
To a question about dynastic politics, he said people had the right to elect whoever they wanted to. He said cooperation among political parties was good for democracy.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2014.
COMMENTS (3)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
I feel Khawaja Saad Rafique is one of the MNA's who could have been the head of PMLn. A political party is suppose to be a platform that provides level playing field to all it's workers so that anyone could become its head but unfortunately in Pakistan we have only family limited companies and there is no chance to become Prime Minister except for making your own political party from scratch, which is equal to none with so much funding and structure to built all over again. Shame on PMLn and PPP for hijacking the system to serve couple of families. Even Obama would have found it impossible to become a head in Pakistan with these Family dynasties hijacking the parties.
IK why not telling people progress he made in KP , his followers are being jaleus of other works
I dont understand, all FEDERAL MINISTERS, just engage the progress works in Punjab, specially Lahore, Imran Khan said correctly they all just spending all development funds in Punjab, specially in Lahore, is this fair.?...