LAHORE: Newly appointed minister Azam Swati has said instead of indulging in politics, he would like to focus on modernising the Pakistan Railways (PR).

“I guarantee you that there would be no link of railways with politics,” he said, while presiding over his maiden meeting with the senior Pakistan Railways officials here on Saturday.

“My relations will be used for the railways. There will be neither politics, nor external intervention in the railways,” Mr Swati assured the officials present at the PR headquarters.

As Mr Swati has replaced Sheikh Rashid as railway minister, he apparently distanced himself from the style of his predecessor who would mostly talk politics during his pressers and at meetings. Mr Swati added that he would, instead, focus on PR’s modernisation.

“Last time I had travelled by rail in 1974. I also noted some things [with a view] to bring improvements while travelling in the parlour car, instead of the dedicated saloon,” he added.

He said that he planned to run PR on the pattern of a commercial enterprise in a bid to ensure provision of state of the art facilities to the passengers.

Later, speaking to journalists at a press conference, Mr Swati said his prime priority was to ensure safe train operations to ensure safety of precious lives of passengers using the railways system.

He said he would outsource certain functions of the PR.

“I think there is a need to outsource certain functions even in the PR police,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2020