February 12, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 04 ,1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: Pakistan Railways has decided to put on hold its two-week-old anti-encroachment drive in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Sukkur and Multan divisions till after the elections.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Monday that the decision, taken at a meeting attended by all divisional superintendents under caretaker federal Minister for Railways Mansoor Tariq here on Monday, had been taken because of stiff opposition to the drive from the political elite. They had ‘warned’ the railways authorities that if the move was not suspended immediately, it could hurt their political aspirations.

The meeting was informed that 60 per cent of the railway land (about 428 acres valued at Rs4.5 billion) had been reclaimed with the help of the Railways Police and other departments concerned.

About 222 acres, grossly valued at over Rs3.5 billion, had been recovered in Karachi alone from land grabbers. The remaining land was recovered in the other six railway divisions.

The sources said railways’ divisional superintendents had informed the caretaker minister that the remaining land could be reclaimed if the anti-encroachment drive continued. More than half of the remaining land of PR has been illegally occupied and subsequently converted into slum areas allegedly in connivance with the Kachi Abadis Directorate.

An official told Dawn that the anti-encroachment drive had been stopped in Gulberg in Lahore because a federal minister of the caretaker government had allegedly occupied PR land. The anti-encroachment drive was also stopped in Hayatabad in Peshawar because of pressure from a business-cum-political family.

An official announcement issued here said that the meeting also reviewed the Rs9billion project to rehabilitate the main Karachi-Lahore track to offset losses suffered after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.