LAHORE: Hearing several cases of public interest at the Lahore registry of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Saturday took notice of annual losses of billions of rupees in the Pakistan Railways and summoned Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique along with audit reports of the department.

During a dialogue with Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique, who is a younger brother of the railways minister, the chief justice said “go and see how Lalu Prasad Yadav, despite being an illiterate person, saved India’s railways from bankruptcy”.

He said the theories formulated by Mr Yadav were being taught at the Harvard University in the US.

Credits Lalu Prasad Yadav with saving India’s railways from bankruptcy and says his theories are being taught at Harvard

The provincial minister was in the court in connection with proceedings relating to condition of hospitals and other health-related issues.

In response to a question, the chief executive officer (operations) of railways said the federal government was paying around Rs60bn in subsidy to meet the department’s annual losses.

Expressing grave concern over the hefty amount required to meet the department’s losses, Chief Justice Nisar summoned the railways minister, secretary and members of the railways board on April 12.

Saad Rafique, however, took no time to respond to the chief justice’s observations and posted five tweets highlighting performance of the department in the period when he has been in charge.

“I am disheartened at the court’s remarks about railways performance. I am always ready to personally give a briefing to the honourable court on the five-year performance of railways. Inshallah, the court will acknowledge its performance once the briefing is given,” he said in one of the tweets.

The performance of a department could not be judged solely on the basis of audit reports, he said. “Audit reports raise objections about every department. Such reports do not [necessarily] mean that there is corruption,” said the railways minister. In another tweet, he said: “We always tell people the truth in public gatherings. It has never been claimed that railways is in profit. But the current situation is much better than it was in the past. The income of the department has reached Rs50bn from Rs18bn.” The minister also took credit “for ridding the railways of nepotism and corruption”.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Salman Rafique apprised the apex court of the performance of his ministry and also expressed his loyalty to the country as a son of Khawaja Muhammad Rafique, an activist of Pakistan movement.

The minister said the government needed support and cooperation of the Supreme Court to serve the people.

“We are ready to support you but your leaders object whenever I visit any hospital,” Chief Justice Nisar said. However, the minister said he had no objection to such visits.

Criticising the provincial government’s policy of establishing public companies in particular, the top adjudicator of the country said the health department’s performance was very bad during the ten years of PML-N’s rule in the province.

Having the powers to formulate new policies did not mean that a government could do whatever it wanted to using the taxpayers’ money, he added.

Chief Justice Nisar said he had heard that an eye specialist had been appointed against the vacancy of a gynaecologist at a hospital in Punjab. He also took notice of Dr Zafar Hussain Tanvir’s appointment as vice chancellor of the Nishtar Medical University, Multan.

Dr Tanvir was not a “valid PhD holder”, he said and directed Punjab’s health secretary, Najam Shah, to submit a complete record of the appointment. He also instructed Chief Secretary Zahid Saeed to submit record of all search committees formed to appoint heads of universities in the province.

The chief justice also sought a report from the Punjab Healthcare Commission about action taken against quacks. “Quacks are playing havoc with the lives of people everywhere and you are telling us about your performance,” he said while pointing to the provincial minister and secretary.

He regretted that billions of rupees were being spent on new projects but old health facilities like the Mayo and Services hospitals had totally been neglected by the government.

The chief justice asked Salman Rafique to furnish a report showing how many hospitals had been established during his five-year stint as a minister and how many had been upgraded.

He also directed the minister to remain present in the court on every future hearing.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2018