“You Should Have Resigned Over Train Inferno That Claimed 76 Lives,” CJP Remarked On Case Against Railways’ Losses.

(@fidahassanain)

“You should have resigned over train inferno that claimed 76 lives,” CJP remarked on case against Railways’ losses.

The bench gave two weeks time to Sheikh Rasheed for business plan and warned strict action if he deviated from the plan ordered for improvement of the railways. The court will take up the case again on Feb 12.

ISLAMABAD: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Jan 28th, 2020) The Supreme Court has given two-week time to Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed to come up with a business plan to uplift Pakistan Railways from its current condition.

A three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed has expressed displeasure with the railways minister over his running of the department. Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah are the other members of the bench. The bench has passed the order on a case related to losses incurred by Pakistan Railways.

The top judge expressed serious concerns over train inferno that took 73 passengers’ lives when apparently a gas cylinder brought by one of the travellers had exploded last year in October.

“You should have resigned,” CJP Ahmad remarked to which Rasheed said that 75 people were dismissed after the tragic incident. “ We have been told yesterday that only two lower staffers were dismissed but what about the higher ranked officers and when they will be fired?,” the CJP asked the minister. On it, the minister said that they would remove the higher level employees. “ It won’t happen and you know you are the highest-ranking employee,” the CJP further remarked. The bench observed that there was plundering in the railways department and addressed the minister that he should never show people dreams.

At this, Sheikh Rasheed said that he was working day and night for at least 18 hours in 24 hours and have brought over seven million passengers to the railways. On it, the CJP remarked that unfortunately in this modern age of 2020, the entire system of railways is being run on parchis (personal favours).

On Monday, the Supreme Court had observed that the Railways was the top most corrupt department and summoned the minister for today for explanation. Secretary Railways was also summoned there by the top court for explain the performance and functioning of the department.

“Rasheed Sahib, the whole story is in front of you and tell us what are you doing as the railways won’t function under your supervision,” the CJP addressed the minister. The court directed him that ideally revenue should take the ministry out of debt and should make it profitable.

“Come up with business plan and you two-week time,” the bench further directed Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, observing that strict action would be done even for the slight deviation. The top court also ordered the minister for completion of six -kilometer portion of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) in two weeks and instructed the Sindh government to provide all assistance on the project.

The court adjourned further hearing till Feb 12.

“We will abide the orders and will take the railways forward,” said Sheikh Rasheed while talking to the reporters outside the SC premises. He told the reporters that their fresh audit report was not released yet as the report submitted to the court was an old report from 2013-17.

Fida Hussnain

Fida Hussnain is a lahore based journalist. He writes on politics, religion, social issues and climate change. He is also a research fellow at University of Gujrat.