BAHAWALPUR: Over 2,236 acres of railway land is still under illegal occupation in PR’s Multan Division for residential, commercial and agriculture purposes, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways was informed here on Thursday.

The committee headed by MNA Muhammad Moeen Wattoo met in the committee room of the PR’s Multan Division superintendent and repeated its earlier direction that encroachment on railways land for commercial purposes should be vacated by using all means. It again asked the Ministry of Railways, Director-General, Property & Land and legal directorate to approach the higher courts for vacation of stay orders.

The Multan DS informed the meeting that during the year 2021-22, over 24 acres of land including 9.10 acres commercial was retrieved from land grabbers. He said the Ministry of Railways had given two and half months time to all divisions of railways to vacate the encroached land. On the report submitted by the Ministry of Railways about the call attention notice moved by MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhail regarding handing over the administration of PR school near Kala Pull, Karachi, to TCF/ICWS was discussed in detail but the mover was not satisfied and the committee decided to hold a meeting in Karachi for site visit in near future. The committee also took notice of the billboards installed without permission and sought their inclusion into the tax net. The Ministry of Railways informed the committee that 46 out of 230 coaches imported from China were now in operation in Pakistan.

The committee was briefed that the track in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab had been repaired by the railways from its own resources.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023