LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) has detected bogus/ghost allotment of several official apartments to various officials for allegedly carrying out ‘immoral and illegal’ activities, Dawn has learnt.

“A survey of the PR’s workshop division has revealed that 58 quarters of the department were allotted by the PR’s headquarters on fake/bogus names from time to time. Besides fake allotment, the serious thing is the inappropriate/immoral use of the state-owned properties allegedly on the part of the officers possessing these quarters for a long time,” explained an official source while talking to Dawn on Tuesday.

He revealed that keeping in view the bogus allotments of the official flats, the PR’s vigilance wing had also started a survey of the department’s Lahore division headed by the divisional superintendent (DS).

“As many as 100 quarters allotted on fake names (retired employees, unidentified people) are expected to be detected soon in Lahore division after workshop division,” he added.

According to documents available with Dawn, workshop division DS Muhammad Khalid Khan has also informed the PR chief executive officer through a letter recently. Through the letter titled “Guideline Regarding Bogus/Fake Allotments”, the DS apprised the CEO about complaints regarding fake allotment of quarters in the workshop division.

“A survey was also conducted in this regard during which allotments of 58 quarters were found bogus. The allotments/notices have been issued from the PR headquarters without any approval,” the letter revealed and sought guideline to proceed further in this regard.

Following are the names of the officials who were allotted quarters in workshop division: Nasir Khan, Gulshan Ali, M Rehman, Aman Khan, Asad Rehman, Umair Aslam, M Yousaf, M Nasir, M Razaq, Waqas, M Jamil, M Aslam, Rana Adnan, Adnan Qaisar, M Faisal, Ahmad Ishtiaq, M Sarfraz, Nasir Mahmood, M Awais Khan, Hafiz Muhammad Irfan, M Fiaz, M Ali Butt, M Imran, M Asif Ali, Imran Sheikh, Lal Din, Tanzeel Ahmad, Ms Zunera, M Ashfaq, H Umair Javaid, Sheikh Hashim, M Arif, Shahid Ahmad, Syed Nasir Ali, Abbas Ali, M Atif Ali, Abdul Wahab, M Saqib, Umar Hussain, M Arsalan, Syed Ahmad, M Khurram, Azhar Uddin, Kaashif Masood, Shakil Amin, Atif Babar, Zulfiqar Ali, Jabbar, Irfan, Basharat Ali, M Yousaf, Naik Muhammad, Asif Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmad.

The locations where these apartments were situated included New Sample Road, Wireless Colony, Railway Stadium Gari Shahu, Washing Line Colony, PNG Colony, Daras Colony, Mistry Colony, Old Military Barracks, Railway Stadium MGOR, Wheatmen Road, Abdul Waheed Colony, Bare Main Dars Colony, Hope Road, Dhobi Ghat, Railway Station Colony, Burner Road Baja Line Colony and Power House.

“There are some names having double/triple allotments of quarters,” the official said, adding that 100 more flats allotted on fake names were expected to be detected within next 15 days or so in the PR’s Lahore division as the vigilance team has started survey in this regard.

When contacted, PR workshop division DS Muhammad Khalid Khan confirmed the development and said the process related to further investigation into the issue was underway at the moment. “We have sought guidance from the PR headquarters in this regard and hopefully it will respond us soon,” he said.

When asked since he was himself supposed to take action being head of the division, why he was required to seek guidelines from the PR Headquarters, Mr Khan said: “It is necessary to inform the headquarters. But we can also take action that we have taken already by investigating further in this regard”.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2025