LAHORE: Apparently panicked after the reported adverse remarks of Supreme Court about the state of affairs in the Pakistan Railways, the PR administration on Tuesday placed services of Jamshaid Alam, Deputy Divisional Superintendent, Karachi, under suspension in connection with Oct 31 Tezgam train inferno near Liaqatpur, Rahim Yar Khan, that claimed more than 70 lives.

The decision was taken after the apex court reportedly reprimanded the railway minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and PR top management for not taking action against any senior official for being responsible for the incident.

“In the wake of fire incident in 7-Up (Tezgam Express) on October 31, the service of Mr Jamshaid Alam (Deputy-DS, Karachi), a BS-19 officer, is placed under suspension with immediate effect,” reads a notification issued by the railways ministry.

Interestingly, Mr Alam, who had been found negligent in the Federal Government Inspector of Railways (FGIR) inquiry report on December 5, was allowed to continue work as no departmental action was taken against him.

“Mr Jamshaid Alam is held responsible for not ensuring handling of Tableeghi Ijtima traffic as per the provision of the Chapter-IX, Handling of Special Traffic of Operating Manual. His conduct falls under the ambit of section 3 (a) of Government Servant (E&D) rules, 1973,” mentions the inquiry report compiled by the then FGIR Dost Ali Leghari, presently posted as the PR’s Chief Executive Officer/Senior General Manager.

On the other hand, an official seeking anonymity criticised the PR administration for not taking action against the senior officials soon after the compilation of the inquiry reports finding them guilty of negligence. He said that the admin only took action after the SC reprimanded the minister and top officials.

The PR had earlier on November 4, 2019 had placed services of six BS-17 and BS-18 officials under suspension for showing negligence in the discharge of their duties resulting in a massive fire in three coaches of Tezgam Express.

Those suspended earlier in the light of an inquiry report included Karachi division’s commercial officer (CO) Junaid Aslam, assistant commercial officer (ACO) Ahsanul Haq, Sukkar division’s ACOs Abid Qamar Sheikh and Rashid Ali and deputy superintendents of railway police (DSPs), Karachi and Sukkar divisions, Dilawar Memon and Habibullah Khattak.

Though the PR admin had transferred a BS-20 officer, Amir Daoodpota, who was Multan divisional superintendent, it didn’t mention the reason for his transfer. However, according to source, his transfer was also linked with the Tezgam fire incident. Similarly, on November 7, the PR also suspended 13 railway police officials from service.

The official regretted that despite tall government claims of bringing improvement in PR affairs, there had been a surge in train accidents, especially on the main line during the last one year or so.

“On Monday alone, there were two derailments —one in Khanewal and another at Kotri that caused suspension of the rail traffic for some hours,” he said, requesting the minister to focus on rehabilitation of the existing main and branch lines for the safety of passengers, instead of launching new trains.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2020