LAHORE, Aug 28: The Pakistan Railways has decided to diminish its commercial and transport wing, which makes over 33 per cent of its functioning, by transferring the relevant staff to a private advisory and consultancy company.

The freight handling on the Lahore-Karachi sector is being handed over to PR Advisory and Consultancy Services Ltd (PRACS) which will also look after commercial management and passenger facilitation of two express trains from Sept 1, sources told Dawn on Sunday.

A summary for the transfer of six PR officers — four in BS-19 and two in BS-18 — to the PRACS was sent to the railway chairman for approval when the company expressed its inability to take over the control of freight handling and trains’ operation before Oct 1 “for lack of staff.”

The services of BS-19 officers, Javaid Anwar, Aabdar Khan, Amin Khalid, are being handed over to the PRACS for looking after “the first joint venture with the private sector for handling 12,000 containers per annum at the Mughalpura Dry Port, Lahore.”

Anzir Ismail Rizvi (BS-19), Shamim A Shirazi and Maqsoodun Nabi (BS-18) will be supervising the freight handling at Karachi.

The six officers would draw their salaries from the Pakistan Railways and work for the PRACS, sources said and added: “All in-service staff of the railways, who have been transferred to the PRACS, are getting 20 per cent additional amount than their take-home salaries. The retired employees are getting pension from the railways and in addition drawing handsome salaries from the PRACS.

Gradually, all the PR’s commercial and transport wing staff would be transferred to the PRACS with the transfer of more train operations to the company by declaring them ‘in loss’ as has been the case with two packed trains — Chenab and Rohri expresses, the sources said.

The Chenab Express (11-up/12-down) runs between Rawalpindi and Havelian and the Rohri Express (131-up/132-down) between Rawalpindi and Khanpur.

The PRACS will be handling ticketing of the two trains through its STEs (special ticket examiners), while the loco crew, mechanical and operational staff will be railway employees. The PRACS will also use the infrastructure and resources of railways without paying anything but sharing four per cent of the profit.

“The company is already earning Rs3,850,000 a month on account of its share in the sale of PR tickets,” they said.

“The arrangements are not only in violation of the Railway Act but also the charter of the PRACS and its memorandum of association, according to which PRACS is merely an advisory and consultancy company, but it is being made a parallel organization.

“Railways is a federal government department and its employees public servants as recently declared by the Supreme Court. The authorities are sending PR employees to a private company which is not listed in any stock exchange of the country,” sources said.