Federal Minister for Railway Khawaja Saad Rafiq has said that the present government does not want to privatise Pakistan Railways but intends to decrease its deficit and make it a productive and profit-making entity. Addressing a press conference at Circuit House here on Monday, the minister said that Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had assigned him a special task to improve the railways, and the task would be accomplished soon.
"When I became minister, the Pakistan Railways had swallowed Rs 80 billion of other departments whereas the process continued at a rate of Rs 30 billion per annum. I introduced some reforms, on account of that the Pakistan Railways witnessed an increase of Rs 2.18 billion in its revenue during three months. I was told that out of order locomotives could not be repaired but we worked day and night and succeeded in bringing 25 locomotives on track, which are now successfully running with freight trains," he added.
The minister said though the railways was facing severe deficit, they had devised a comprehensive strategy to make it a productive institution. He also announced to run a goods train between Karachi and Faisalabad to facilitate the exporters and traders, however, Railways was not in a position to run any new passenger train as it had no engines. Presently, he mentioned, that the repaired Locomotives were running in the country.
Talking about the blast on Jaffar Express, he said that it was carried out through an explosive devise on railway tracks. Instead of targeting innocent people, militants should remove their differences through dialogue. Rafiq said terrorists were not only callous but also coward, who continued hatching conspiracies to hit Pakistani nation through bomb blasts.
He expressed his deep sorrow over loss of seven lives in the terrorist attack. Four bogies of Jaffar Express derailed whereas two other bogies turned turtle owing to the bomb blast near Dera Murad Jamali. However, rescue operation started immediately and the railway track was being restored on war-footing, claimed the minister.
He said that orders had been issued to probe Jaffar Express blast, which occurred despite tight security arrangements and at the time of blast, eleven officials of Railway police and ten officials of the FC were also present on the spot. Two rescue teams from Sibi and Sukkur were immediately sent to the blast site to shift injured passengers to hospitals, he added.
Rafiq said he was in touch with the Chief Minister Balochistan as well as Inspector General (IG) Police Balochistan, besides monitoring the rescue operation at blast site. The minister said that terrorists had neither faith nor religion. "They (terrorists) only want to implement their nefarious designs," he said. He said that seemingly the train blasts were being carried out to hinder relief activities in the quake-hit areas of Balochistan. Therefore, the nation should be united to foil all the nefarious designs of such elements, he urged.