KARACHI, June 18: The Pakistan Railway Workers Federation (PRWF) expressed surprise over awarding a contract of ticketing for Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) without meeting appropriate procedure of rules and regulations. In a press release issued here on Saturday, the President of the PRWF, Manzoor Razi, said that open bidding before awarding the contract was not held and the contract was awarded in haste to M/s Mass Communications.

He alleged that the owner of the said company Jawed Iqbal was a personal favourite of the Railway State Minister Ishaque Khakwani. The contractor deposited merely Rs360,000 as security amount on June 15, while he had started operation on March 8, this year.

Mr Razi said that the contracts of stalls at stations and dining cars in bogies, was given against the security which ranged between Rs500,000 to Rs2million.

He said that the contract was awarded in a sum of Rs3.6 million per year and the contractor had to deposit Rs900,000 in every three months.

Mr Razi claimed that the contractor had not deposited first instalment of Rs900,000 so far.

He demanded of the president and prime minister to constitute an inquiry into the matter and make its findings public.

Mr Razi said that if there was a foul play, the contract should be abolished, a heavy penalty should be imposed on the contractor. He also asked the Sindh High Court to take a suo moto action to save the railway from heavy losses of public money.