SC gives govt four more weeks to overhaul Pakistan Railways

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the government four more weeks to overhaul loss-making Pakistan Railways in order to turn it into a profit-making national entity.

Headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, an apex court bench was hearing a suo motu case pertaining to financial losses the Railway department has been inflicting on the national kitty.

The SC extended the deadline for overhaul of the railways on a request by the Planning Commission.

The court also sought a progress report on revival of the Karachi Circular Railway from the railways and the Sindh government.

CJP Ahmed observed that the Karachi-Hyderabad bridge might collapse any time, but the British-era Kotri bridge is still in its right shape. There isn’t a single bridge over Indus River that the nation can take pride in, he added.

The bridge built during the regime of former military ruler Ayub Khan is the only beautiful bridge the country has at present, he remarked. He said bridges were poorly built after the Ayub Bridge and called for construction of better bridges for the ML-1. Indus River be accorded respect for running the country’s economy, he stressed.

The railway secretary said state-of-the-art bridges will be built as part of the ML-1 project whose phase one will be completed in three years. At this, the CJP snapped three years is a long period as Chinese people lay down railway tracks in months.

He directed the government to complete the project at the earliest if funds are available.

Supreme Court gives government four more weeks to overhaul Pak Railways