ISLAMABAD, Aug 7: The Pakistan Railways has removed its 1,043 employees from service, including 92 officers, on charges of corruption and inefficiency.

Official sources said that 1,700 more corruption cases were currently being investigated which were likely to be finalized very shortly.

Minister for Communications and Railways Javed Ashraf Kazi has directed the officials concerned to immediately process the corruption cases, many of which could also be referred to the National Accountability Bureau for further investigation.

President Pervez Musharraf has been informed about various improvements brought about in the Railways which helped generate considerable revenues, the sources said.

The Pakistan Railways generated Rs1.1 billion more during the year 2001-2002 than it did in 2000-2001. It earned Rs1.3 billion and consequently paid pack Rs5.5 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan during the last financial year. By the end of 2004-2005, the organization plans to generate Rs7.3 billion.

The gap between revenue and expenditure which stood at Rs2.8 billion during 1999-2000 was narrowed down to Rs918 million during 2000-2001, and to Rs500 million in 2001-2002, despite a Rs1.5 billion extra burden resulting from a pay raise in December 2001 and fuel price rise. It wiped out the operational deficit by Dec 31, 2001, but raise in pay and fuel price pushed it back into a small deficit. An amount of Rs6.9 billion has been allocated for annual development programme for 2002-2003 as against Rs6.7 billion set aside in 2001-2002.

According to the details provided to the president about the future plans and objectives of the Pakistan Railways, there will be a complete renewal of 1,600 kilometres of track from Karachi to Peshawar and a renewal of another 1,600 kilometres from the released material on other sections.