Railway Minister should have resigned over the fire incident, Chief Justice

During the hearing of the railway deficit case in the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice expressed his anger on the Minister of Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and remarked that he should have resigned over the fire incident.

A 3-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the railway deficit case in the Supreme Court, during which Railway Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed himself appeared on the summons of the court.

During the hearing, there was a dialogue between the Chief Justice and Sheikh Rasheed, while the Supreme Court also expressed its anger on them.

The Chief Justice asked, ‘Yes, Minister, tell me what you are doing, all your rubbish is in front of us, the railway will not run under your administration.

At the same time, the Chief Justice while talking about the Tezgam tragedy said that you should have told about the fire incident, 70 people died due to burning, you should have resigned on this.

To which Sheikh Rashid replied that we have fired 19 people, the Chief Justice remarked that yesterday it was told that 2 people were fired, you fired the junior employees, when will the big ones come.

On this, the Railway Minister said that the elders will also be expelled, on which the Chief Justice remarked that it is not visible, you are the eldest.

It should be noted that on October 31, 2019, 74 people were killed and more than 30 passengers were injured due to a gas cylinder explosion in the Tezgam Express from Karachi to Rawalpindi near Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab.

The Chief Justice remarked that the Minister should not show dreams to the people, you are still running the eighteenth century railway, there is looting in the railway department, on this Sheikh Rasheed said that I work for 18 hours, I has carried 70 lakh passengers.

On this, the Chief Justice remarked that even in 2020, your entire system is running on slips, to which Sheikh Rasheed said that everything is going to be biometric.

Indication of action on deviation from business plan

Later, the court directed the Federal Minister of Railways to submit the business plan within 2 weeks, and said that action will be taken if there is any deviation from the plan presented in the court.

Apart from this, the court also summoned Planning Minister Asad Umar and Secretary Planning for the next hearing.

The court remarked that the railways should be brought out of losses and made profitable, and also ordered that the 6 km section of the Karachi circular railway should be completed in 2 weeks while the Sindh government should assist in railway related matters.

After which the hearing of the said case was adjourned till February 12.

It should be noted that in April 2018, the then Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took notice of the loss of 60 billion rupees in Pakistan Railways. There were railways

7 days after the Supreme Court took suo motu notice, the then Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq submitted a report regarding the loss in Pakistan Railways while the Chief Justice ordered an audit on the said matter.