Rail accidents increased due to additional trains: Saad Rafique

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) legislator and former railways’ minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique, on Sunday condemned hike in railway fares and also criticised increasing incidents of rail accidents, ARY News reported.

Khawaja Saad Rafique, while addressing media outside the Parliament House, alleged that the present government has stopped the development of the Pakistan Railways.

“PML-N had increased railway revenue up to Rs50 billion while its annual development budget was reached to Rs40 billion,” said Rafique.

He criticised that the present government has allocated only Rs16 billion development budget for railways while its estimated deficit was recorded up to Rs39 billion.

The former railways’ minister blamed additional trains for an increasing number of rail accidents. He alleged, “Railways Minister has compromised SOPs of rail security. He [Sheikh Rasheed] runs Dhabeji Express only to please President [Dr Arif Alvi].”

“The fuel reserves of Pakistan Railways was up to 20 days during the PML-N’s era, whereas, it has been reduced to only three days.”

“The present government jacked up railway fares, whereas, it was increased up to 7 per cent two days ago. It should be kept into mind that Rs100 billion needed to be allocated in the budget for Pakistan Railways.”

He claimed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government was lying with the nation regarding ML-1 project as it was only a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) but not an agreement signed with China.