Revamping the railways

THE government’s five-year plan for the rehabilitation of Pakistan Railways, at a cost of Rs 60 billion, is aimed at addressing some of the major problems afflicting the country’s largest provider of service for travel and freight. The plan will focus on overhauling the PR’s physical assets, especially its network of rail tracks, bridges, as well as the purchase, maintenance and repair of locomotives, freight wagons and ancillary equipment. The rehabilitation of the track system will include the main line between Karachi and Rawalpindi (but what about the system’s extension to Peshawar?) and another connecting Lahore and Faisalabad. Funding has also been set aside for widening the gauge of the track between Mirpurkhas and Khokhrapar, in anticipation of a planned rail link between Pakistan and India, though, quite surprisingly, no provision seems to have been made for the expansion and improvement of the Karachi Circular Railway. Of late, there has also been talk of converting the railways into a state-owned corporation. The federal railways minister said this a couple of weeks ago but a few days later, the minister of state for railways publicly expressed his disagreement on the matter. The latter said that the PR should not be corporatized but should be turned into an autonomous organization with full powers for management, planning, expansion and operations. In the past, there was also talk of privatizing Pakistan Railways but apparently, the idea was abandoned in view of the failure of the privatization of a branch line on an experimental basis.

The fact of the matter is that privatization or corporatization is not the issue. The attention of the government should focus on not only how to improve the quality of the PR’s physical assets, which the Rs 60 billion plan seeks to do, but also to enhance the reliability of rail services in the country. Travelling on a train should be not only safe and comfortable but also an experience that travellers would want to look forward to. This is going to be a challenge to the PR management given that the alternatives, in the form of air or bus travel, are much faster and hassle-free. Acquiring locomotives and freight wagons for increased capacity is fine but attention should also be paid to the quality of services provided for passengers. It is a common experience that there is no clean drinking water on some trains or that the toilets are unfit for use.

There is also the issue of tardiness. Rail travellers have often to put up with trains running late by several hours as something of a norm. If it wants to attract more passengers and freight — and this is something not entirely impossible given that travelling by train has a charm of its own and is more affordable than air travel — the PR will have to look at all these problems and rectify them. At the same time, the railways, especially given the massive size of its workforce and bureaucracy, must clamp down on corruption and become a passenger-friendly organization. The system of sale of tickets needs to be streamlined and purged of corrupt elements who deprive the system of sizable revenues. Making tickets easier to purchase, and without undue delays or without having to use connections, would make life easier for passengers, who have often to buy tickets from intermediaries at a premium. Besides this, procurement of new locomotives and equipment should be transparent, so as to avoid any allegations of wrongdoing as happened when newly imported locomotive engines imported from China developed faults soon after their induction.

LB polls and violence

IRONIC as it appears, the murder of a Jamaat-i-Islami activist on Sunday coincided with the holding of an all-party conference designed to adopt a code of conduct for the local body elections. Boycotted by the ARD, the MMA and some other parties, the conference was called by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. It agreed on a code of conduct and decided to set up an election monitoring committee to observe whether any candidate or party violates the code. The code requires all candidates to observe democratic norms. Which means no one should try to disrupt a rival candidate’s meeting or use provocative language in speeches, banners, posters or pamphlets. However, given the kind of pre-election situation we are witnessing in Karachi, one wonders whether anybody will abide by the code. A day prior to the JI activist’s murder, Ms Nasreen Jalil, an MQM leader, complained that she was harassed at the Karachi airport by JI supporters. Even though she was not physically harmed, Ms Jalil accused 250 JI supporters, including former city nazim Naimatullah Khan, of assault, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.

Old electoral rivals in Karachi, the JI and MQM have been involved in acts of violence for long. Originally, it began on the campuses during the Zia regime when the JI was the king’s party. It armed its student wing, IJT, which terrorized other students, leading to the formation of other militant student groups. Since then, violence on Karachi campuses has been chronic. The JI and MQM’s top leaders have done nothing to rein in their student wings. Outside the campuses, quite a few politicians have fallen victim to violence. Those coming to mind immediately include Mr Aslam Mujahid and Munawwar Suhrawardy, besides three Binnori town ulema within 13 months. The code of ethics adopted by the conference will have meaning only if its proponents live up to it. The local government elections are going to be hotly contested. Even though the polls are to be partyless in character, political parties will very much be in the fray. It will be the duty of all parties and candidates to spare Karachi further bloodshed and ensure a peaceful electoral exercise.

Helping Africa

IT would need much more than the series of rock concerts, recently held across the globe and aimed at stepping up the pressure on industrialized nations to deliver on promises of aid to Africa, for the colossal human distress to subside. Even after years of aid and development efforts, there is little evidence of improvement in the lives of the people of Africa. Millions of them, especially those living below the Saharan belt, continue to be stalked by poverty, hunger, disease and death. Indeed, in many cases, human development indicators are worsening. Statistics show that the number of people living on less than a dollar a day in the region is on the increase while progress in education, reducing child mortality, etc., has been markedly slow. Moreover, Aids continues to take a terrifying toll — upwards of 6,000 lives per day. Civil wars, corrupt dictatorships and unfair trade practices, thrust on the Africans by western governments, have also rendered economic recovery a distant prospect.

Although all members of the G8 are interested in ridding Africa of poverty, one can expect a lively debate on the subject when the industrialized nations meet in Scotland on July 6-8. These countries have already agreed to forgive $40 billion that Africa owes to the IMF and the World Bank, although only 18 countries will benefit from it and there will be no substantive reduction in Africa’s external debt burden of $300 billion. Other pressing concerns, too, need to be addressed, such as the aid amount, the modalities of making this available to the people and better trade practices. The G8 needs to resolve whatever differences still exist among its members and avoid taking quick-fix decisions. It must remember that Africa’s problems can be solved only through measures that are not only people-friendly, but also long-lasting, until Africa is freed of the crippling hold of poverty, disease and starvation. The rock concerts brought together millions, but the pressure will have to be sustained.