LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways Hanif Abbasi on Friday ordered an inquiry into the delay in purchase of parts and equipment required for the maintenance of trains as well as rail infrastructure across the country.
He gave these orders while presiding over a meeting here at the Pakistan Railways (PR) headquarters on Friday night in a bid to look into the affairs of the trains operation.
The minister also reprimanded the officers for use of dummy coaches and wagons (faulty/brakeless rolling stock) in the rakes of passenger and goods trains and ordered the authorities to sideline such rolling stock (coaches) with immediate effect and phase out the entire wagons from the railway system till Dec 31.
“I am surprised to see that the tenders for the procurement of material (parts etc), which can be easily manufactured by the state-owned enterprises, were floated unnecessarily, causing delay in the procurement and leading to the untoward incidents,” Mr Abbasi said while speaking to Dawn while sharing details of the meeting.
“The officers’ actions would be investigated. And those found guilty will be taken to task,” he said, adding that he had asked the federal secretary for railways (railways board chairman) to assign this inquiry to some honest officers to reach the facts.
To a question, he said there were various items, articles or parts that could be easily manufactured by the Peoples Steel Mills and Pakistan Ordnance Factory. The PR can procure this within the shortest possible time without going into the formalities of tenders etc.
He said there would not be a single dummy coach in the rakes of all passenger trains and all dummy wagons being used in the goods’ trains would be completely out of the system till Dec 31.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the PR said that during the meeting, it was revealed that the PR had completed a health analysis of 1,326 coaches. He said that dummy coaches had been removed from the system.
The meeting also decided to refurbish German-made coaches to restore them to operational condition and improve passenger facilities.
Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2026
