LAHORE: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique says all the allotments of the railways land to the residents of katchi abadis by the provincial governments in the past have merely been a fraud.

“The Pakistan Railways (PR) is a federal government entity and no provincial government has the authority to give away any of its assets,” Mr Rafique told the media at the railways headquarters on Friday.

The minister explained that no railways land could be transferred to anyone without a no objection certificate (NOC) under the law.

“The railways has never issued any NOC for any of its lands’ transfer. The ownership rights given by the previous governments to the dwellers of shanties on railways land were merely announcements for political gains,” said Mr Rafique in his last press conference as the minister for railways.

The minister was quick to add that the dwellers would not be thrown out of these katchi abadis.

“Work is underway to formulate a land regularisation policy to generate some revenue for the organisation under a mechanism that will create a win-win situation for both the parties,” he said while adding that the railways land should be utilised for commercial purposes as has been the case with railways in developed countries.

Minister says railways land should be used for commercial purposes

Quoting from the railways official year books, Mr Rafique said the organisation’s condition was pathetic when he took charge in 2013.

“I was not allowed to work for five years owing to dharnas in Islamabad. The railways operational dynamics in the financial year 2013 catered to 13pc for freight and 78pc for passengers. In the year 2018, the ratio is 39pc freight and 55pc for passenger traffic. Our passenger traffic has gone up from 15m to 55m, increasing railways revenue from Rs18.1bn in 2012-13 to Rs50bn in 2017-18.

“We managed to computerise the railways land record and identified 10,790 acres of land which was not in railways account previously. E-ticketing system was introduced in spite of hurdles. No railways in the world can generate all its revenue through passenger traffic. Railways in developed countries have freight traffic and they utilise their land, especially adjacent to stations for commercial purposes,” Saad Rafique said and added that the Pakistan Railways would have to properly utilise its land to generate additional revenue.

Regarding the public-private partnership policy introduced during his tenure, the minister said the model was not working well for the railways.

“We have two examples which didn’t prove to be in favour of railways – the leasing out of railways land to Royal Palm Golf and Country Club in Lahore and handing over the commercial management and passenger facilitation of Business Express to a private party. In case of Royal Palm Golf and Country Club, we have yet to get justice. The case is in the final stages and we hope to get justice from the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

To a question, the minister said recovery of the outstanding dues from the management of the company previously operating Business Express was the National Accountability Bureau’s prerogative.

“We took back the commercial control of the train and are now earning at least Rs0.8m more than what they were giving to us,” he said while claiming that the PR had eventually been transformed into a profitable organisation due to consistent efforts for streamlining its affairs and enhancing revenues.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2018