Quality is one of the most important aspects in the services sector when enjoying a service so this paper will focus on the quality issues that has resulted in the decline of the once " superior service provider" to less reliable department of Pakistan.
By Ali Haider
Pakistan railway which is one of the state-owned transportation systems has a head quarter In Lahore and is administered under the Federal government through the Pakistan Ministry of railway. It has been a significant mode of transportation for the whole country. It has also played a vital role in ease of business, education, and sightseeing. The economic development of any country without any doubt depends a lot on the efficient transportation system and logistic system of the country.
Quality is one of the most important aspects in the services sector when enjoying a service so this paper will focus on the quality issues that has resulted in the decline of the once " superior service provider" to less reliable department of Pakistan.
The rulers focused on building and improving the road networks in the past such as motorways and they considered it to be the ultimate development of transportation and completely ignored the existence of Pakistan railway and least up gradation and developments were made in this department. Even though when the motorway was being built on the estimated cost of Rs 24 billion there was an offer from Pakistan railway that they could upgrade their entire network in just Rs 10 billion and this offer was completely neglected. These decisions of the past governments impacted the decline of quality in Pakistan railway.
There has been a great political intervention in Pakistan railway which destroyed the whole HR system of Pakistan railway that resulted into nepotism and failed to produce an efficient strategic plan for improvement. The recruitment, posting and promotions of the senior management to lower management of employees are done on the political basis which has created an atmosphere of non-skilled and de-motivated workforce. This negative effect of political involvement has further caused inefficiencies and job insecurities in the department. In such scenarios if anyone wants to make effort for the department then even, they face a lot of barriers to fulfill their objectives.
There is need to create an accountability board for Pakistan Railway. The sole purpose of this department would be to have strict check and balance on all the department of the railways. If any individual of any department is not performing well then, that person should be held accountable. The financial crises that is being faced by the Pakistan railway should be investigated properly and there should be no political intervention.
---The writer is a student who has written this piece as per requirements of his studies at a local university in Lahore.
