By Mumtaz Alvi

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways is slowly and surely heading towards suspension of its countrywide operations, as the Ministry of Finance has declined to give it the promised Rs11.1 billion-bailout package, which the federal cabinet had approved.

To the dismay of the Federal Minister for Railways Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, the Chairman National Assembly’s standing committee on railways Ayaz Sadiq and every one present during the panel meeting on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Dr. Waqar Masood, who arrived late in the meeting, informed about the financial constraints, while expressing his inability to provide a penny under the promised package.

Railways Minister Bilour deplored the proposal by the finance secretary that DFIs would provide initially Rs3.5 billion to the railways and noted they deserved to be paid the package amount in the first place and if not, the State Bank of Pakistan should help lessen their financial problems by providing loan on soft terms, whereas DFIs would charge much higher than it.

About the finance secretary’s guarantee that DFIs would not charge higher interest rates, Ayaz Sadiq said he could not understand how could the finance secretary held out an assurance on behalf of those institutions.

The finance secretary briefly attended the proceedings and then left for an ‘important meeting’. Ayaz Sadiq pointed out that over 80 million people travelled by trains annually but strangely, the government was not prepared even to offer a few billions to the railways to keep its trains on tracks.

“Well over 90 per cent people in Pakistan can’t afford air travel and for an overwhelming majority it is next to impossible to travel by road even. You can’t imagine what will happen when trains operations are suspended,” he said.

Needless to say, Bilour and Ayaz Sadiq appeared deeply disappointed over the outcome of an interaction with the Finance Secretary Dr. Waqar Masood and the Secretary Planning Commission Sohail Ahmad.

The federal cabinet had approved the package in December last year, but not a penny was released to the railways so far, which annually transports around 81 million people. Pakistan Railway has 526 locomotives at its disposal. But hardly 150 are in operation while the rest are rusting because of non-availability of funds for their repair.
Source: The News
Date:2/18/2011