LAHORE: A woman officer from Central Superior Service’s Railways Group couldn’t retain charge of Lahore Station Manager even for a day as a powerful union of station masters allegedly showed severe resistance over her appointment.

The Pakistan Railways’ Administration immediately withdrew the notification of entrusting Syeda Marzia Zehra with the charge of station manager which was in addition to her own responsibility as assistant transportation officer-1 (ATO-1), PR’s Lahore Division, allegedly under pressure of the union, Dawn learnt.

“On Friday, the PR administration issued a notification, entrusting Ms Zehra with the charge of Lahore Station Manager. On this, the station masters association (Sampars Union) protested the decision of appointing a CSS officer on the seat of station manager that is meant to be filled temporarily or permanently by the officials of the cadre of station master. Finally she couldn’t retain her charge even for a full day,” an official source in the department told Dawn.

“Appointment of a CSS woman officer as Lahore station manager and taking the charge back from her within seven to eight hours has happened for the first time in the history of railways in this subcontinent,” he said. “The powerful station masters’ union didn’t bear her even for a full day. And finally the admin surrendered before it,” the source said.

Unprecedented move is outcome of resistance by union

The post of manager (BS-17) of Lahore Station -- the country’s No 1 railway station -- was vacant after the PR’s Lahore division admin removed Mr Younas Bhatti from the office, directing Ms Zehra to look after it till further orders. Since PR has only two positions of station manager -- one in Lahore and the other in Karachi, the job is considered to be most important in terms of dealing with the huge operational affairs at the aforementioned busiest stations.

According to Ms Zehra, who is from 44th common of the CSS’s railways group, the PR administration has withdrawn the notification of her appointment on Friday evening. “Actually Mr Younas Bhatti was removed from the office on various complaints. After this a notification for my appointment as station manager on a look-after basis was issued on Friday. But it was, later, withdrawn the same day,” she told Dawn.

However, she said, she would continue supervising the office of station manager being ATO-1 of the PR’s Lahore division under the law. “Though I cannot look after the post now under the new notification, I being ATO-1, can exercise my authority to supervise this post. And I will do this. Office of Lahore Cantt station master also comes under my supervision,” she explained.

She said Mr Yaqoob had been appointed as Lahore Station Manager. “Though he has started work, it doesn’t mean that I cannot supervise him,” she added.

On the other hand, the union rejects Ms Zehra’s stance stating that how a grade-17 officer can supervise a grade-17 officer. “The PR admin is habitual of taking such unwise decisions. In 2010, we had launched a countrywide strike after the PR appointed a guard at this prime post of station master cadre,” Sajjad Gujjar, Sampars Union President, told Dawn.

He said the union was of the view that the two posts of station manager (Lahore and Karachi) should be filled by the senior-most station master of grade 16. But they surprisingly removed Mr Bhatti from the post and then assigned a CSS officer of grade 17 to look after the office of station manager. “How a grade-17 officer can supervise the office of a grade-17 officer? And it doesn’t matter if the official is in grade 16. It is a matter of cadre under the law,” Mr Gujjar said and also demanded that an officer of grade - 18 or above (Divisional Transportation Officer--DTO), instead of ATO, should supervise the office of station manager.

LESCO: Various Lesco teams launched mega search operations in the areas of Bilal Colony (Lahore) and Farooqabad (Sheikhupura) and detected massive power theft. The teams disconnected supplies of over 60 illegal connections, charged over 800,000 units to power thieves besides initiating legal actions against them, according to a spokesman.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2020