LAHORE, July 4: The Directorate of Vigilance in the Pakistan Railways has been wound up. Serving brigadiers of the army had been heading the directorate, set up in 1999 with a majority of its 350 or so staff comprising in-service and retired army officials.

The directorate was set up to monitor observance of rules, regulations and procedures in matters relating to finance, revenue, customer services, procurement and contract-awarding process and providing assistance to the senior management in checking administrative and financial indiscipline.

Some 10 months ago, the directorate was barred from functioning at Lahore, Multan, Sukkur, Rawalpindi and Peshawar divisions of the railways, following complaints that the vigilance staff was unnecessarily creating hurdles in the operational affairs. However, the directorate staff continued working at Karachi division and at the railways headquarters in Lahore.

A summary seeking continuation in the functioning of the directorate, with an annual budget of Rs44 million, was rejected by the prime minister and the ministry of railways issued a notification (No 24/2/2000-E-I Vol-1) in this regard on Wednesday. —Staff Reporter