Government still struggling to pull Pakistan Railways out of the crisis

Government still struggling to pull Pakistan Railways out of the crisis

Farhatullah Babar, who is the current spokesperson of the office of President of Pakistan, has revealed president’s plan for the restoration of Pakistan Railways (PR) that is going through deep crisis.

Railway employees were not getting their salaries and pensions for the past couple of months due to which train operations came to a halt across the country on Monday, as the Railway employees under the guidance of the Loco Running Staff Train Drivers Association led by General Secretary Ali Haider Chachar, staged a protest.

“Our protest and sit-in will continue till the disbursement of salaries,” Chachar told The Express Tribune.

Therefore a high level meeting by the current President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari was carried out in order to find out an appropriate solution for the payments and salaries of the protesting workers. After the meeting was over it was revealed that President Zardari has asked the government to release funds for the salaries and pensions of the Railway employees within a seven days.

Farhatullah Babar told the media that President has also advised the government to arrange a loan of Rs. 6 billion for the Pakistan Railways. Babar insisted that the President remarked this loan should exclusively be used for Pakistan Railways.

“The president also advised the government to arrange a loan of Rs6 billion for locomotive repairs and purchases of new locomotives. The loan will be used exclusively for this purpose and will not be diverted for any other purpose,” he said.

Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani earlier this year had approved a loan of Rs 11.5 billion as a bailout package for Pakistan Railways out of which 5 billion was to be paid by federal government and PR was told to arrange the remaining 6.5 billion through local banks.

Babar also added that the President specially invited the Chairman of Arif Habib Group of Companies, Arif Habib, and the Chairman of ARD Group of Companies, Aqeel Kari Dhedi, to give their input on the role the private sector could play around the state-run rail sector.

Posted by Imran Shaukat Khan on Oct 19 2011. Filed under Latest News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry