Establishment Division has granted NoC to Pakistan Railways to recruit against 2031 vacant posts on regular basis, which would widen the existing department deficit, official sources revealed to Business Recorder. A notification of the Establishment Division states, "the undersigned is directed to refer to M/o Railways (Railway Board)'s O.M.NO.IV/2017-Misc/4 dated 29th August 2018 on the subject noted above and to state that obtaining NOC from this Division is mandatory before making any kind of recruitment. Moreover, requisite staff with matching qualification, experience and grade is not available in the surplus pool for absorption against the reported vacant posts. M/O Railways (Railway Board) may fill 2031 vacant technical posts of different categories ranging from (BPS-01 to PBS-11) on entire system of Pakistan Railways, on regular basis under that Ministry as mentioned in the OM under reference, in accordance with the approved recruitment rules subject to completion of all codal formalities and in line with the directions of this Division's Recruitment Policy dated 22nd October 2014 as amended on 21.09.2017 & 27.12.2017 and mechanism dated 16.01.2015, 03.03.2015, 11.05.2017, 18.08.2017.
This NOC is valid for a period of six (06) months from the date of its issuance. However, according to para 1(xiii) of recruitment policy guidelines dated 22.10.2014 as amended on 21.09.2017 recruitment is required to be finalized within 90 days from the date of advertisement. Whereas in line with para -1 (xiii) of the policy guidelines advertisement to be published for recruitment may be submitted to this Division for routing the same to Ministry of information and Broadcasting No. direct advertisement would be placed by any organization". Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed recently stated that Railways has 20,000 vacancies whereas 10,000 essential posts would be filled on merit soon. Ministry officials said currently Railways has around 76000 employees and 119000 retired pensioners - the latter costing around Rs 31 billion annually. Government gives a subsidy of Rs 37 billion annually to Railways in spite of a rise in revenue from Rs 18 to 50 billion during the last five years.
Railways is currently facing around Rs 42 billion deficit, with the induction of new employees, this may further widen. The previous government allocated Rs 125.5 billion for PR for 2018-19 including Rs 39 billion for development schemes and Rs 86.5 billion to defray salaries and other expenses of Railway employees. A grant of Rs 37 billion has been budgeted for Railways to meet deficit against Rs 40 billion for 2017-18.
Out of the total budget of PR amounting to Rs 89 billion for financial year 2017-18 (consisting of around Rs52 billion revenue receipts and Rs37 billion subsidy/financial assistance), funds to the tune of Rs 55.825 billion were consumed as salary and pension amounting to 62 percent of total revenue budget. The loss can be controlled to some extent by generating additional revenue receipts and minimizing expenditure not directly related to train operations including TA/DA and utilities. Of the remaining Rs 34.175 billion, a sizeable sum of Rs13.375 billion was allocated for operational fuel during 2017-2018 - an allocation beyond its control with many upward revisions in the international price of fuel.
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