LAHORE: Former railways minister Saad Rafique has demanded the constitution of a judicial commission to probe into the Daharki train accident in which over 40 passengers were killed.

Taking on federal ministers Fawad Chaudhry and Sheikh Rashid for doing politics on train accidents at a presser here on Monday, Mr Rafique said a judicial inquiry should also be held into the train accident (near Rahim Yar Khan) in which 70 Tableeghi Jamaat members were killed and the ‘ineptness and incompetence’ of the PTI government would be exposed.

“I request (the government) not to play with the institutions as the governments come and go but the institutions have to stay here,” he said and lamented that Sheikh Rashid had held Tableeghi Jamaat members responsible for the accident (in 2019 near Rahim Yar Khan) accusing them of using gas cylinders but in actual the accident was caused by short-circuit.

“The PML-N will also raise the matter of train accidents in parliament,” he said and added the PTI government was responsible for the accident as it had not repaired the track despite the request of officials.

“No funds were allocated by the PTI government on the repair of the railway tracks and locomotives. In our government, we allocated Rs40bn while the incumbent government slashed that budget to Rs18bn. When nothing is spent on repairing locomotives and tracks the chances of accidents increase,” he said.

Saad Rafique said the ministers should be ashamed of themselves for blaming their predecessors for train accidents.

“The ministers should remember that they are in the government and take responsibility for such things,” he lamented. He said this “selected company” had completely failed.

He said the PTI government had destroyed the railways as it did not come on its priority list. He said the railway ministry had not given tender for the Royal Palm Country Club for the last one and a half years causing millions of rupees loss to the exchequer. Similarly, he said when he was a minister he had set 11 news stations and there this government had not yet had a tender for leasing out shops there.

Mr Rafique also talked about political hiring in the railways. He said Sheikh Rashid had recruited Rawalpindi’s people in the railways.

“The record of those hired during my and Rashid’s tenures should be examined to identify who did recruitment on political grounds,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2021