PAKISTAN Railways (PR) enjoyed monopoly when the road infrastructure was not as good as it is today. As a matter of fact, roads were originally paved to access the railway stations. The railway had about 8,000km track in the early years of Pakistan that remains as such till date.

The system should have been expanded with the increase in social and economic activities. Contrary to this, roads gained momentum dramatically, expanding literally by leaps and bounds in the 1970s. They comprise 260,000km under the aegis of the National Highway Authority (NHA) which has the power of collecting toll tax and surcharge on petroleum products. PR has to make do with the fare and freight structure that is strictly controlled by the cabinet.

There has not been any five-year plan to update the PR infrastructure, no attempt to digitise its assets, no analysis of its staff in the changing circumstances, and no serious efforts to pinpoint the threats to the system vis-à-vis opportunities.

PR is overstaffed and has superfluous lands, reflecting the ineptitude, indecisiveness and tactlessness of people who rode its bandwagon unfamiliar with this highly technical department. There has not been any mechanism put in place to this day determining the amount of a loss whether it was the result of the purchase of substandard material or the mismanagement. Also, there is no mechanism to know when a gadget reaches the end of its useful life and needs a replacement.

The hierarchy at the top can take landmark decisions if it is conversant with the technicalities of the system or lend ears to the candid opinions of their team that has experience. There have been attempts to privatise the PR in 1975, 1997 and 2006. All failed as wooing investors was tantamount to alert the entire system in their service. Actually those who level allegations of inefficiency and corruption themselves lack the desired courage, resolve and dedication to put the system on an even keel.

Indian Railways is a case in point. In the early years of the decade of 2010s, a panel of supply chain and logistics experts prepared a report that the Indian railway was a gone case, thanks to persistent losses it had sustained over the decades, and it would collapse before 2016.

Here emerged on the scene Lalu Prasad, the Indian railway minister asking the railway board of directors to suggest what could be salvaged to start a new beginning. He declared in unequivocal terms that he would neither allow himself nor anybody else to interfere in railway business. He would, however, oversee the progress on the recommendations himself.

He religiously followed his words. Indian railway staged a stunning comeback, registering a profit within three years. I met Prasad as member of PR delegation that visited India in 2008. I was PR chief operating superintendent. He enquired about the number of employees in the PR and its operating efficiency. On my reply that we had 150,000 officials who had been almost halved by this time, he revealed with a visible sense of pride that the Indian railway was manned by 1.5 million individuals and no employee had been deprived of the benefits accrued by the organisation. Even the coolies had been made permanent.

Pakistan has about one-fifth of Indian population, the strength of the PR employees, therefore, should have been about 300,000. PR can become a thriving entity if it is not kept in isolation as a competitor of the road infrastructure. For this purpose, the ministry of transport is required to be put in place bringing ports and shipping, NHA and PR under one command.

Vision 2025 envisages Pakistan as a bridge between the regional powers to boost the overall economy of the region. The goal may be attained when main segments involved in logistics complement each other.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has concluded that by spending annually merely 20 per cent of the income generated by NHA through toll tax and surcharges on railway, the latter may renovate its entire infrastructure as well as phase out its ageing rolling stock.

Muhammad Saleem
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2022