Minister for Railways, Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour on Friday suspended nine officials of railways whose negligence led to the tragic disaster in which two trains collided at Juma Goth, Karachi, causing loss of human lives, besides injuring many others.
The suspended officials were: Jam Rasool (Driver of Allama Iqbal Express) Abdul Waheed (Assistant Driver) Muhammad Rafique (Station Master, Juma Goth) Chaudhry Bashir (Assistant Station Master) Muhammad Rafique (Controller) Muhammad Lakhoo (Divisional Transportation Officer) Muhammad Ali Hashmi (ATO) and Zahiruddin (AME) Habibullah (AME).
Addressing a press conference here at Ministry of Railways, Bilour ordered inquiry into the incident headed by a Federal Government Inspector. The minister announced Rs 500,000 for the dead and Rs 150,000 and Rs 100,000 for critically and slightly injured, respectively.
Bilour, attributed this colossal loss to 'human error', however, he hinted at out-dated signalling system that must be replaced with new one to ensure safe travel on trains. "We are working on it (new signalling system) and it'd soon be put in place," Bilour said and informed that Islamic Development Bank had approved fund for this project. The new signalling system will provide for ATV system whereby a train will automatically stop in case it overshoots or jumps the signal.