LAHORE, July 27: Most members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways are not satisfied with the reasons given by the authorities for the appointment of junior officers in place of seniors and inductions from outside the organization.

Committee chairman Sardar Tufail Ahmad Khan told newsmen at the Railways Mughalpura Workshop office on Wednesday he had conveyed the reservations of the members to the ministry.

“We also know that personal likes and dislikes were the criteria for postings against important posts,” Sardar said in the presence of Minister for Railways Shamim Haider, seven members of the committee and senior officers of the organization.

“All the members of the committee were against the posting of a junior officer as the general manager (operations) but the PR authorities skillfully justified it,” the NA body chief said.

The performance of railways, he said, improved when army was inducted in 1999. “The number of ticketless passengers considerably decreased and railway employees, who used to leave their place of work after marking their attendance, started working full day,” he said.

Sardar Tufail said he had received a number of complaints that kickbacks were received while making purchases from abroad. The maximum number of complaints were against the purchase of locomotives and he had serious reservations on this issue.

Minister Shamim Haider said the railways would be taking measures within the next three to four weeks to minimize chances of accidents on the Khanewal-Rohri section in future.

“If we could not ensure safety measures on the section now we would never be in a position to do so in future. We will reduce the duty hours of drivers and other operational staff on the section from eight to six hours. Refresher courses after every three or six months for the operational and technical staff will also be arranged,” the minister said.

The detailed report of the Federal Government Inspector of Railways on the Sarhad station accident would be finalized within the next 10 days, the minister said.

“Information technology, mechanical and civil engineering professional do not stay for longer periods in railways. We are improving the pay scales to attract them. Besides, we are starting one-year diploma in railway engineering at the Walton Academy so that we could get railway-specific professionals,” Mr Haider said.

The minister said Col Tahir Mahmood was brought from outside the railways to improve the working of the Mughalpura Workshop. He parried other questions on the subject but said: “No investment was made in the workshop for the last 25 years. We want that all the wagons, coaches and locomotive are manufactured here. We will increase the salaries of the workshop staff.”

Committee member and MNA from Mughalpura Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said his colleagues (in the committee) were not satisfied with the appointment of GM operations. “We were told it is a tradition that only the officer who had been a divisional superintendent could become the GM operations.”

He said the Minister Shamim Haider was not satisfied with the performance of railway departments, except the vigilance cell.

“I have been opposing the appointment of Workshop DS from outside the organization for the last six months and my colleagues fully supported me. We were told that both the GM operations and the Workshop DS have been given six months to improve things. However, appointments of three more people from outside the railways had not been made on our protest,” he said.

Earlier, DS Col Tariq Mahmood briefed the NA committee about the working of the Mughalpura Workshop.