February 22, 2007	Thursday	Safar 4, 1428

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LAHORE, Feb 21: All station masters of railways’ seven operational divisions did not pass on any information regarding trains’ arrival and departure in their jurisdiction to the central control office at the PR headquarters for one and-a-half hours on Wednesday.

The station masters (SMs) and the assistant station masters (ASMs) would tender their resignations on March 1 and stop working from April 1 if the demands were not met by then, said Chaudhry Muhammad Din who led the delegation of the station masters’ representatives that had last year held talks with a committee, comprising three principal officers of the Pakistan Railways.

All SMs and the ASMs were scheduled to bring all the rail traffic to a standstill but decided to register their token protest in the wake of the Samjhota Express tragedy, he added.

Mr Din said the railway authorities had been ignoring them for long and making false promises. “We had decided on Sept 26 last year to end our protest movement when the committee members agreed that our demands were just and assured us that these would be recommended to the high-ups for approval.”

The recommendations were approved by the cabinet that a special allowance, announced by the prime minister after the Sarhad tragedy, be given to the staff that falls in essential category and responsible for trains’ safety. Ironically, Mr Din said, the allowances were given to the staff that fell in the non-essential category and had nothing to do with the safety of trains according to the PR rules.

“The duty list given in the PR operational manual clearly states that the guard and the section controller have nothing to do with the trains’ operation and safety. In case of any accident, the station masters or the assistant station masters are held responsible,” Mr Din said.

“We had given the PR high-ups a month’s deadline but the Ran Pathani incident forced us to wait further. Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said during a recent interview with a TV channel that our demands were just but added that the employees who would resort to protest would be dealt with an iron hand. The last part of the minister’s statement is highly objectionable and forced us to re-start our peaceful struggle for the acceptance of our demands,” Mr Din maintained.

The Pakistan Railways has seven operational divisions namely Quetta, Karachi, Sukkur, Multan, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

Minister of State for Railways Ali Asjad Malhi had on July 20 constituted the committee, comprising Additional General Manager (Freight) Ali Arif, Chief Operating Superintendent Maqsood Ahmad Khan and Chief Personnel Officer Javaid Mabarik. The committee was asked to hold talks with the SMs who had on July 19 last year cut off contact with the central control officer for around five hours.

The railway authorities had last year upgraded 11 posts of its employees, including drivers, guards, assistant station masters and signal maintainers but ignored the station masters.

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