Retrieving 4,231 acres of land: Railways Ministry directed to intensify efforts

The Senate Standing Committee on Railways, which met at the Parliament House Tuesday under the Chairmanship of Maulana Gul Naseeb, has directed the Ministry of Railways to intensify efforts for retrieving the 4,231 acres of precious Railways land presently under occupation by various 'qabza' groups and land mafias and to utilise this valuable asset for cutting the huge losses being faced by this national organisation.
It also instructed the Ministry to provide all relevant details of Royal Palm Golf Club lease deal airing apprehensions that it is not carried out in a very transparent manner.
"We want to help out the Railways which is sinking deeper into such quagmires daily", observed the Members. They also asked the senior officials to brief the Committee in the next meeting on the recruitment made recently by Railways saying that considerations of merit and fairplay were grossly ignored.
The Committee expressed its surprise over arbitrary decisions by the Railway authorities to abandon and dismantle several narrow gauge tracks like the one from Mandra to Bhon and from Marri Indus to Bunu instead of making them functional with broad ones and causing great deal of hardship to the people of these areas.
A number of Members of the Committee held the view that the transport mafia in the country is the biggest hurdle in the way of turning around Pakistan Railways and making it a profitable, useful, efficient and service oriented national organisation.
It urged the Ministry of Railways to approach the provinces through the forum of CCI for resolution of long standing problem of retrieval of Railways land. It also asked the Railways to settle the matter under new lease proceeds formula of 60:40 agreed earlier by virtue of which Railways would take 60% of the lease proceeds the remaining 40% would go to the respective province where the land is located. In this connection, senior officials of the Railways said there has to be a legal/constitutional cover for this arrangement, absence of which is presently complicating things for the Railways.
The Committee asked the Ministry to strive hard for turning around Pakistan Railways as it used to be during 60s and 70s, economical but efficient mode of transportation for goods as well as the people. The meeting was attended among others by Senators Dr Khatu Mal, Mrs Farah Aqil, Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Abdur Rashid, Pervaiz Rashid, Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan and Syed Javed Ali Shah besides senior officials of the Ministry of Railways.