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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has turned into a shambles because there are no funds available even to repair its out of order locomotives.
A meeting organised by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways to discuss affairs of the ever-sinking national organisation was informed on Tuesday that the government had released only Rs2.1 billion so far against Rs25.1 billion allocated to it for the current financial year.
The meeting, presided over by Ayaz Sadiq of the PML-N, was attended by Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, MNAs Nauman Islam Sheikh, Begum Nasim Akhtar, Dr Talat Mahesar, Rahela Baloch, Tariq Ayub Sheikh and Haji Rozuddin, Finance Secretary Waqar Masood, Planning and Development Division Secretary Sohail Ahmad and Railways Secretary Shahid Hussain Raja.
Mr Bilour said: “The PR is virtually dying because out of its 500 locomotives, only 227 are in running condition. Despite repeated presentations before the cabinet, the government is non-committal to bail the railways out.”
He said it was ironic that the government had funds to bail out the PIA, which was used only by a fraction of Pakistanis, while the railways was a cheap mode of transportation.
The minister said the government had been promising for the past one year to release Rs5 billion for making old locomotives functional, but nothing had happened, and as a result “we will have to close down more routes”.
He said the railways was losing business to road transporters because it was running only four freight trains daily. If the problem of shortage of locomotives was overcome, it could run 16 to 17 trains daily, he added.
The PR suspended passenger trains on seven routes last year. He said a Rs11.5 billion PR-specific package was approved by the federal cabinet on Dec 30, but the government had not released the amount. In addition, he said, a huge reduction had been made in the railways’ share in the Public Sector Development Programme.
Railways Secretary Shahid Hussain Raja told the meeting that Rs13.6 billion was allocated for the railways under the PSDP, but later the amount was reduced to Rs7.3 billion. “There are strong indications that we will not get even this amount by the end of the financial year,” he added.
Finance Secretary Waqar Masood said the government wanted to make the railways a commercially viable entity, but the current economic circumstances did not allow this. “The government does not have enough funds to spare for the PR,” he said.
He said the last year’s floods had cost the government Rs30 to Rs35 billion so far. It had to pay over Rs100 billion subsidy to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) and the poor law and order situation in the country had put an extra pressure on the national exchequer.
“We had estimated the budget deficit at around 4 per cent for the current year, but it is already touching 7 per cent and the government has already used all its available financial cushions,” Mr Masood said when the committee suggested that the government write off or take the responsibility of entire PR loans, which stood at over Rs40 billion.
However, he promised to take up the issue with the cabinet committee dealing with restructuring of ailing public sector organisations.
He said the IMF programme for Pakistan had been suspended and negotiations with bilateral donor agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID) were not moving ahead. Therefore, Mr Masood said, the country was facing a serious cash liquidity crisis.
Planning and Development Division secretary Sohail Ahmad said the government had imposed an across-the-board cut in the PSDP allocations. Thus all government sector entities have to manage their affairs within the limited funds. The committee unanimously recommended immediate steps for addressing the financial crisis facing the railways.
