RAWALPINDI, Jul 09 (APP): Federal Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati on Friday said that the Railway lands and stations would be given on lease under a public-private partnership for infrastructure development.
While handing over the “Sir Syed Express” to the private sector at Rawalpindi Railway Station, the Minister said inefficient and corrupt mafia in the Railways department would not be tolerated at any cost as it had given a huge financial loss to the department in the name of worker’s welfare.
He said the salaries of workers would be increased while efforts were underway to turn the Railways into a profitable organization.
Swati said that there were several ghost employees who were receiving salaries sitting at home while there were around 132,000 pensioners in the department which would be identified within the coming 20 to 25 days.
The Minister lauded the role of Chief Justice of Pakistan for retrieving the railway land from the mafia, adding no Railway land was sold out during his tenure.
He informed that Prime Minister Imran Khan was going to visit Uzbekistan in few days and hopefully the work on the second phase of ML-1 would be started after his visit.
“To increase the earning of Railways, he said, a mechanism is being devised to hand over the passenger trains to the private sector, as this is the only way to end the financial crisis of the Pakistan Railways. “he added.
