ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique on Wednesday informed the National Assembly that the Pakistan Railways (PR) suffered Rs7bn revenue loss due to last year’s devastating floods in the country as railways operation remained suspended for 42 days.

Besides this, he said, the PR was also facing financial problems due to suspension of activities at seaports, adding that he made many efforts to get some financial support from Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, but did not get even a single penny.

The minister was responding to a point of order raised by Aliya Kamran of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) regarding non-payment of salaries and pensions to the railways’ employees for the month of March.

Mr Rafique said that he had asked the finance minister either to provide him funds or make the ports operational so that the PR could generate revenue through freight trains.

Interestingly, the minister made no commitment and gave no timeframe as to when the employees would get salaries.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2023