ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: The Supreme Court observed on Friday that Pakistan Railways treated its “pensioners as beggars” and warned that salary cheques of officers would be seized if they failed to make payment to pensioners in time. It also ordered the organisation to open bank accounts of pensioners in branches near their homes.

“Non-payment to pensioners is a violation of human rights while on the other hand railways property is being sold out,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed.

A two-judge bench, comprising the chief justice and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, took suo motu notice of the state of affairs in Pakistan Railways after the death of a pensioner outside a bank branch in Mughalpura, Lahore.

Mahmood Khan had come to the bank on Tuesday morning. Unable to reach the bank’s window to get a ‘token’ for payment, the 70-year-old retired bus driver of the Mughalpura Workshops decided to spend the night there, like many others, in the hope of getting paid on Wednesday.

There were four people between Khan and the window when he collapsed. He was taken to the nearby PR hospital, but doctors pronounced him dead.

The court was informed that severe financial crisis had forced the Railways to suspend the service of 106 trains on different routes because 362 locomotives of its fleet needed urgent repairs.

Abdul Shafeeq, Secretary of the Railways Board, said the organisation was negotiating with the NLC and PSO for repair of 273 locomotives. These will be repaired at the Heavy Mechanical Complex Taxila or in local Railway workshops.

The chief justice was annoyed over the absence of Railways chairman in the court and ordered the PR authorities to submit a report indicating what efforts were afoot to repair defective locomotives and how much time would it take to repair them. The report should also suggest what measures are being taken to retrieve precious Railway lands and to curb corruption in the department by ensuring that tickets are sold at the windows.

“Pakistan has become a nuclear power but cannot repair railway engines,” the court deplored. Pointing to the Railways secretary, it asked why did he not resign when engines were out of order and trains were suspended.

“Bad governance is the main reason behind the failure of Railways,” the chief justice said, adding that a number of its officers had failed to deliver for a long time. “If they cannot perform their duty, they should give chance to someone else as the country abounds with talented people.

The chief justice said that being a commercial entity Railways should generate its own resources instead of depending on the government for financial help.

Former railways minister Sheikh Rashid informed the court that he would file an application to become a party in the proceedings and assist the court. He alleged that the Railways had sent on forced leave all those engineers who were capable of repairing locomotives.

He said the Railway had decided to import 200 coaches in disregard of the fact that carriages could be made locally. Likewise, he said, expensive machinery was rusting in local sheds.