LAHORE, July 18: Pakistan Railways high-ups could not determine the exact cause of the Sarhad accident at a meeting on Monday but ‘human error’ remained dominant in the discussion. Sources told Dawn that presided over by Railways Minister Shamim Haider, the meeting was attended by chairman Shakeel Durrani, general manager (operations) Abdul Wahab Awan, additional general managers of freight and passengers besides almost all officers in BS-19 and above.
The PR high-ups are under immense pressure from the president and the prime minister to find the exact cause and fix responsibility.
“The journey between Karachi and Peshawar can be cut at least by two-and-a-half hours if certain restrictions on the system are removed. But it is not possible because the railway system is inefficient,” sources quoted the PR officers as having said at the meeting held at the Railways headquarters.
“Ironically, no attention is being given to improve the system, especially the signals and control room communication network. Passenger trains can be run on the existing track at 100 kilometres an hour and efforts should be made to maintain the speed,” the officers said.
The participants also expressed grief over the loss of 137 lives in the accident.
Sources, however, challenge the claims of the railway high-ups and asserted that the authorities were trying to camouflage their weaknesses.
“The system is ‘absolute.’ It is maladministration, ad hocism and confusion which are to be blamed for the tragedy. The officers are running their own railway and not the state railway. The post of the general manager has been bifurcated into two — operations, and maintenance and services. The Railways Act clearly states that there will be one post of the GM.
“By ignoring four seniors, Abdul Wahab Awan was given the additional charge of the office of GM (operations) in December last and his posting has yet to be confirmed. A new post of GM (M&S) was created and Aurangzeb Khan was posted against it. As a result, all powers now rest with the PR chairman who is not a railway man and who is also running two private companies, Railcop and PRACS,” they said.
“An atmosphere of uncertainty and confusion was created in the organization by giving a deadline to make the railways a corporation without announcing modalities.
“A huge amount was misappropriated in the name of maintenance of tracks from the level of the chief engineer to the PWI (Permanent Way Inspector). Had the funds been properly utilized, the condition of the tracks would have been exemplary at least in the region,” the sources said.