LAHORE: Pakistan Railways (PR) has transferred and posted several officials besides placing service of some others under suspension during the last couple of days.

The move started the day [Sept 12] new Railways CEO Nisar Ahmad Memon assumed charge of his office. “It seems transfers were already planned as 14 senior officials were reshuffled immediately after Mr Memon took over,” an official source told Dawn.

On Sept 12 (Saturday), the PR administration transferred Muhammad Azam Ghafoor, a BS-20 officer of stores & purchase department and presently posted as chief controller of purchase (IBS-20), and appointed him as chief controller (stores).

Mr Mahmoodul Hassan was transferred and posted as director/procurement (BS-20), Naveed Mubashar as divisional superintendent Multan, Shoaib Adil as chief marketing manager, Farrukh Taimur Ghilzai as federal government inspector of railways, Syed Shah as additional general manager/traffic, Rahat Mirza as chief mechanical engineer/carriage & wagons, Ghulam Qasim as managing director, Pakistan Railways Carriage Factory, Sajid Bashir as rolling stock specialist, project management unit, CPEC, Pakistan Railways, Iftikhar Hussain as divisional superintendent/workshops Mughalpura, Shah Rukh as AGM/ infrastructure, Asif Mateen Zaidi as chief engineer/open line, Ghulam Dastgir Khan as managing director/Pakistan Railways Freight Transportation Company and Sohail Iqbal Siddiqui as chief controller (purchase).

On Sept 14, the PR admin suspended from service Fiaz Ahmad Khan, Irfan Akbar Khan, Gultaiz Khan, Liaqat Ali Shah and Sajjad Ali Shah - divisional superintendent (Peshawar), ex-divisional engineer, Peshawar, assistant executive engineer (Peshawar), AEN (Nowshehra) and station master (Mardan), respectively allegedly due to illegal allotment of land at Mardan and other issues. Mr Khan (DS Peshawar) was replaced by Muhammad Nasir, director general (technical). Moreover, Muhammad Ghufran Khan, a BS-19 officer, was assigned to look after the charge of DG (technical).

On Sept 15, the PR admin also transferred its deputy chief personnel officer Rizwan Saeed Khan and posted him as deputy chief controller (store & purchase). Same day, the services of PR Sukkur division’s commercial section clerk Inayatullah and head clerk Wahid Bakhsh were placed under suspension for alleged corruption.

“We will not spare any official if found involved in corruption,” Mr Memon said in a press release.

The source claimed that action is expected against a couple of grade-19 or 20 officers (divisional superintendents) [in coming days] for not controlling derailments and accidents.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2020