Railways in Doldrums

Not a day goes by when there is no railway accident .The other day a railway compartment of Tezgaam caught fire near Lahore. There is no denying  of the fact that Pakistan railways need a shot in its arm. We had inherited a very efficient railway set up at the time of partition. What a pity that instead of improving its systems further we have destroyed it. There might be many reasons for its deterioration but two things stand out conspicuously.  First, politically the strong road transport lobby in the Ayubian era, moving in the corridors of power made the rulers take such decisions which crippled the railways at the expense of promotion of road transport.
Some railway ministers overloaded railway’ s man power by recruiting on political basis more staff than was actually required thus increasing its non developmental expenditure.
Time was when  VVIPs like the President, Prime Minister and Governors used to travel in railways inside the country in separate compartments known as saloons attached with railway trains and that kept the railway staff on its toes thus improving its working and performance. There came a time when even railway ministers stopped travelling in trains .
It is about time the government through the forum of CPEC install a new railway track between Peshawar and Karachi and Quetta, widen the single track that exists between Rawalpindi and Manzai near South Waziristan and connect it with Quetta via Tanai.  In the same manner this track can be extended to DIK also  from Pezu via Tank. The railway track upto Havelian can also be widened extending it to Abbottabad.
The railways which is known to be common man’ transport need special attention so that common man may get an affordable and safe mode of transport.