LAHORE, July 11: Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court on Monday directed Pakistan Railways to facilitate devotees of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar by attaching additional coaches to routine passenger trains.

The judge issued the direction when railways chief operating superintendent through a written reply informed the court that the department was facing an acute shortage of locomotives and was not in a position to run special trains on the occasion of annual Urs of Sufi saint Shahbaz Qalandar.

On court orders, a report regarding special trains run by the railways during the period of last six months was also submitted.

The report revealed that eight special trains had been run during the period including six for Sikh pilgrims, and one each for Raiwind religious congregation and Urs of Hazrat Bahauddin Zikriya at Multan.

It said trains for Sikh pilgrims had to be arranged because of international commitment while only two special trains were arranged for domestic passengers. It was stated in the report that due to shortage of locomotives the department could not run special trains to facilitate the petitioner or devotees to attend Urs of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

After going through the report, the judge directed the railways authorities to facilitate the devotees by attaching additional coaches to routine trains, if it could not run special trains and disposed of a petition filed by Jhoolay Lal Council.

Council president Sheikh Tariq Abbas submitted that every year railways ran 14 special trains to facilitate the devotees of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. He said the council bought train tickets worth Rs3.6 million for devotees every year giving huge revenue to railways.

The petitioner said this year the railways closed different trains owing to financial constraints and also stopped service of special trains to accommodate the devotees of Lal Shahbaz.

He said Urs of Lal Shahbaz would be held from July 31 to Aug 2 in Sehwan Sharif, Sindh, but the devotees would face a great deal of inconvenience due to closure of special trains.

He sought directions for railways authorities to restore its special trains before the Urs started.