LAHORE, Nov 6: The Pakistan Railways has decided, in principle, to increase the number of its divisions to 10, it is learnt. With the creation of a new division at the PR headquarters in Lahore and bifurcation of the Karachi division, the number will rise to 10.

At present, the railways has eight divisions — Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Multan, Sukkur, Quetta and Workshops.

The decision to create the new division was taken at a recent meeting presided over by Railways Board chairman Shakil Durrani.

The meeting decided to post Deputy General Manager Javaid Iqbal as the divisional superintendent of the new division “being created to lessen the burden on the Lahore DS, enabling him to concentrate more on operational affairs.”

The new DS will be responsible for maintenance work at the PR headquarters and residential estates, the Pakistan Railways Academy at Walton, railways grounds in the city besides other administrative affairs, the sources said.

The meeting also decided to implement the decision to bifurcate any of railway divisions by posting two divisional superintendents at Karachi.

The decision to post the then chief traffic manager, Nasreen Haq, as Karachi DS (Freight) and to re-designate Junaid Qureshi as DS (Passengers) was taken in July this year.

Promoted to BS-20 early this year, Ms Haq was given the task to handle all incoming and outgoing cargos at Karachi “in order to attract more importers and exporters by expediting the clearance of cargo at the port city.”

Implementation on the decision had to be postponed following resentment from some senior officers who were of the view that it would render the office of the additional general manager (freight) at the headquarters ‘ineffective,’ the sources said.

Ms Haq was then made the chief operating superintendent but non-availability of locomotives and wagons at the Karachi Port Trust started badly affecting freight operations of the railways, resulting in decrease in its earnings.

Karachi DS Junaid Qureshi also lodged a complaint with Railways Chairman Shakil Durrani in this regard and Ms Haq was granted a four-month leave with effect from Sept 12, the sources said.—Zaheer Mahmood Siddiqui