LAHORE, May 21: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways has succeeded in establishing its writ after a year in one case of irregular posting.

Ironically, the NA body has been unable to take note of other such instances, especially the posting of the chief personnel officer, in the organisation during the period.

“Col Tahir Mahmood Nasir (PA-19160), presently working as the Chief Mechanical Engineer (Carriage) at the PR headquarters office at Lahore, on his repatriation to the Pakistan Army, is hereby relieved of his duties to effect his new assignment with immediate effect,” says a notification of the Pakistan Railways copy of which was made available to this reporter on Sunday.

Sources said since May last year, the NA committee had been raising voice against the appointment of Col Nasir and seeking “reasons for posting of a BS-19 officer against a BS-20 post” and “reasons for filling of posts from outside the railways, particularly when railways employees are available with better performance...”

Col Nasir was the Mughalpura Workshops divisional superintendent when an NA committee meeting had on Oct 31 last year discussed PR Vigilance Cell’s reports on the misuse of railway saloon and his (Col Nasir’s) alleged involvement in the matter, his conduct and recommended action against him.

Justifying the posting of Col Nasir, the then minister for railways Shamim Haider said after the meeting the army officer was brought from outside the railways to improve the working of the Mughalpura Workshop, the sources said.

Another meeting of the NA body had on Jan 5 recommended to the railway authorities to immediately remove Col Nasir from the post of Mughalpura DS and give him any non-field assignment if he was inevitable for the organisation in the light of reports of the PR general manager (operations), the vigilance cell director and the IG of railways police on misuse of saloon, illegal use of the police force by the DS to vacate private property at Gujranwala and other irregularities.

However, Col Nasir was made the Chief Mechanical Engineer (Carriage) at the PR headquarters on Jan 17. The NA body again took up the issue while ignoring irregular posting of Javed Mubarik Ali, a BS-19 officer of Transportation (Traffic) and Commercial department working as data processing manager in the information technology wing, against the BS-20 post of the chief personnel officer as a stopgap arrangement.

“Mahmoodul Rashid and Muhammad Khalid, both BS-20 officers, were awaiting posting when Mr Ali was made the CPO,” the sources said.

Mr Ali and four other officers of the Transportation (Traffic) and Commercial Department were denied promotion to BS-20 by the Railway Board on Jan 2, the sources said. Qazi Javed Ashraf, as chairman of the railways, had sacked around a dozen employees after a Rs19,600,000 fraud in the purchase of medicine was detected in Lahore division. The Federal Service Tribunal had banned the promotion of Mr Ali, Mushtaq Khan Jadoon, Durre Shahwar and other officials for three years while reinstating them in service.

Dr Abida Javed (Mr Ali’s wife) was among the medical officers selected by a committee, also including Mr Ali, at Karachi in February, they said while referring to rule 128 of railways personnel manual which states: “... officers whose relatives are to be considered for appointment should not be members of the selection board.”

“Some 13 non-gazetted officials are working against BS-17 posts in the Transportation (Traffic) and Commercial Department alone at the headquarters while the situation at other wings is not different,” the sources said.

A BS-21 officer of the railways, who wished not to be named, said the state of affairs in the divisions was even worst. “We are short of hands and immediately require some 5,000 technical staff on the open line. Engineers, information technology and marketing graduates besides other professionals do join the railway but leave it after some time because of meagre wages and unfavourable working conditions. Even 50 per cent of the probationers do not prefer railways. They either re-appear in the competitive examination to join other service groups or manage to go on deputation to the other government departments.”

Many a times, he said, the vacancies outnumber the candidates, leaving the selection authority with either the option of selecting the all or to re-advertise the posts.