NOWSHERA, Sept 23: Federal Minister for Railways Mian Shamim Haider said on Thursday that a study to convert Pakistan Railways into a state corporation with full financial autonomy was under way.

He was talking to newsmen at the Locomotive Factory in Risalpur after a ceremony marking the rolling out of the sixth locally-manufactured locomotive. The minister said, "We are planning to make the railway a state corporation at the earliest."

However, he said, the government had no plan to privatize this state-owned entity. The conversion of the railway into a state corporation with full financial autonomy would improve its service and facilitate the implementation of development projects in time, the minister said.

Mian Shamim Haider said that the Locomotive Factory at Risalpur was yet to reach the optimum capacity, and efforts were on to make it achieve full utilization. He said that shortage of funds was one of the main problems hindering the factory to achieve its optimum.

To a question the minister said diversifying technologies was essential for achieving self-reliance. The minister, along with the GM of manufacturing and services, Hamid Hassan Butt, praised the local technicians who, they said, had proved their worth.

Mian Shamim Haider dispelled the impression that there was any disparity between the salary package of the railway workers working in the carriage factory in Islamabad and that of those working in the locomotive factory in Risalpur.

However, the GM, Mr Butt, said that to give the facility of overtime and other privileges, the rightsizing of the strength of the workers was essential. Meanwhile, talking to the reporters on the issue of the president's uniform the federal minister for railways said that it was a non-issue.

"We have a lot of other problems, like poverty, unemployment and lack of education which needed to be addressed first," he said. Mr Shamim Haider said that a person who was doing his best to break the vicious circle of poverty and to make the country an enlightened welfare state should be allowed to hold both the offices.

He criticized the MMA and the ARD and accused the alliances of misleading the people. To a question that Article 63 D-I would become operative after December 31, 2004 under which the holding of two offices simultaneously would become illegal, Mian Shamim Haider said, "Let the time come, and then the ruling party, the PML, would take an appropriate decision."