Court lifts stay order on appointments in Pakistan Railways

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench has lifted stay order on recruitments in Pakistan Railways and permitted the ministry for new appointments, ARY News reported on Monday.

Earlier, the high court had stopped the ministry for new appointments on October 15 following a petition filed by Pakistan Railways’ PREM Union to challenge recruitments through balloting.

According to railway officials, the ministry had received 120,000 applications for the 1053 vacant seats, whereas, the federal cabinet had decided to finalise appointments of the successful candidates through balloting.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) permitted the ministry for making new appointments through the said procedure in its latest orders.

Read: Reforms afoot to make Railways profitable organization: Shaikh Rasheed

In September, Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed had vowed that 10,000 essential job posts in Pakistan Railways (PR) would be filled on merit soon. He said PR has the potential to generate maximum revenue which could contribute huge amounts to alleviate national debts.

The federal minister had also hinted in his December 13’s media interaction to increase perks and benefits of railway employees, saying that he will meet Prime Minister Imran Khan for the consideration.

Rasheed said that he will request PM Imran Khan to increase perks of Grade-1 to Grade-16 railway employees. He said that the ministry has also decided to run a train from Raiwind.

He said that a new train will be started from Sargodha division and the ministry would end its deficit within three years.