Pakistan Railways has alleged that different paramilitary forces, prominently Pakistan Rangers and Khasadar have illegally occupied a large portion of its land in different parts of the country. This was stated by the General Manager, Pakistan Railways Saeed Akhter while briefing Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of National Assembly, held here on Friday with Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in the chair.
He claimed that Pakistan Railways is helpless in dealing with the encroachment mafia as magistracy system of the department has been made ineffective, due to which action could not be taken against them. The people who have occupied railway land are well-connected with top notches in military and politics, who patronise them whenever railway finds a way out to take action, he added.
Earlier, the PAC had directed defence ministry to vacate railways lands occupied by paramilitary forces in different areas but no attention was paid to the committee's directives as the forces were still occupying lands in different parts of the country.
The committee observed that billions of rupees losses have been accrued to railways as its interests are not properly watched by the authorities concerned, particularly in the circumstances where railways land has been grabbed by some influential bigwigs.The committee infuriated with the situation directed PR to make a comprehensive plan to control its losses by running the organisation on professional lines. It also directed PR to give a detailed briefing to the committee within a month particularly about the land grabbed out of the total railway estate besides making desired amendments in railways act to plug the loopholes.
Riaz Hussain Peerzada said that the department should step up efforts for early recovery of the railway land from the grabbers, exploring the possibility of building shopping malls and parking lots on the land to generate revenues for minimising losses.
"The organisation stands on its last leg. It is need of the hour that railways land is be properly utilised by commercialising it with consultation of the provinces and it should be leased out through transparent bidding, keeping in view the market value of the property", he remarked.
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