The issue has much wider implications than the railways authorities seemed to realize until a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmad started hearing a case pertaining to huge financial losses incurred by Pakistan Railways. During Monday's proceedings of the case the CJP observed that "there is no department in Pakistan more corrupt than Pakistan Railways." That pronouncement may be a bit harsh but everything else resonates strongly with the public. Every passenger, he regretted, puts his/her life in danger as the railway stations, tracks, and several signals are not in working order. In fact, the system is in such a derelict condition that accident keeps happening with alarming frequency. In November last, seven coaches of Pakistan Express detached from it near Faisalabad and two bogies of the same train derailed at the Karachi Cantt station. In December, another train averted what could have been a terrible crash when the fish plates of rail tracks came off. There have been too many derailments and other accidents to be mentioned in this space. The worst incident was the horrific fire that broke out last October in a Karachi-Lahore train claiming 73 lives.
The present government may not be to blame entirely for this sorry state of affairs. As a matter of fact, for quite some time there has been a constant deterioration in safety standards and increase in financial losses. A major reason is that trains are no longer a means of convenient or leisure travel for the elites, only the masses use them and hence are of little interest to those in positions of power. How out of sync is the system needs no elucidation after the CJP pointed out that the entire record of the railways is maintained manually whereas it should have been computerized. This only adds to the inefficiency with which the operations are handled from ticketing to tracking of trains. The court also lamented the fact that at time the world has moved on from bullet trains to higher developments, our railways remains mired in the 19th century. Some of the things can be easily fixed if only the department gets its priorities right. For instance, Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed likes to boast about inducting trains on several new routes, which further burdens the creaking rolling stock and dilapidated infrastructure. Instead of putting passenger trains on more and loss-making routes he should use whatever resources at his disposal for fixing the systemic problem. Nothing should be more important than passenger safety and comfort.
What is also ignored is that trains are a vital cog in the economy, being the cheapest mode of transporting goods compared to road and air carriers. Also, world over railroad services earn profits from freight trains rather than passenger traffic. Unfortunately, this important facility has remained overlooked because of certain vested interests. This must change. Railways ministry needs to focus its attention on upgrading the infrastructure; and increase the number of cargo trains to start making profits rather than losses.
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