Pakistan Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique has said that no political pressure will be tolerated and decisions will not be allowed to bulldoze in hasten.
He was addressing a meeting between the PR administration
and a delegation of the Sindh government on Karachi Circular
Railways (KCR), held at the Railways Headquarters here on
Saturday.
“We are ready to lay down foundation stone of the KCR by
standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sindh Chief Minister Murad
Ali Shah, but seriousness and sincerity should be shown from
both sides,” he said.
The minister said that the KCR was a historical and
important project which should have been completed 30 years
ago.
He said that he had enjoyed the journey of tram, adding
that when he saw a flood of problems in Karachi, he felt pain.
“We do not work under political pressure; we work on the
recommendations of the professionals, we have revived a destroyed railways,” he said.
” We are ready to cooperate on the KCR project but do not
want to cause any loss to the nation,” he added.
The minister suggested that upgradation of Karachi-Peshawar
mainline under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) should be
part of feasibility of the KCR and urged the consultants to create unanimity on the design under the supervision of the Chinese
experts.
He directed the PR to cooperate on KCR for making it a
profitable department by running it on commercial basis.
Saad Rafique said that he personally visited former Sindh
chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and discussed the KCR issue
and had written several letters to the Sindh government
but no response had been received.
“It is not my job to remove encroachments from the route of
the KCR,” he added.
The minister said that he talked to the Sindh chief
minister and he liked him personally even though he was member
of the Pakistan People’s Party. He said nothing could be gained
through a blame-game.
” We are ready to cooperate on the KCR, but it was
troublesome that no minister or secretary-level officer from
Sindh was present in the meeting, whereas the top level
administration of the Railways including the federal minister
and CEO were present in the meeting, which expressed seriousness
and sincerity of the PR.
“Railways is a federal institution which does not
enjoy holiday of Saturday and we are ready to leave even
the holiday of Sunday for the Sindh delegation,” he said and
added, “leave the politics aside and let us complete our
professional matters.”
The minister said that Karachi could only be freed from
containers and traillers, when freight transportation would
pass through Railways via Mainline-1 after the upgradation of
it.
“Only KCR will not resolve the issues of the city,
upgradation of ML-1 is also important but unfortunately it is
not included in the feasibility report of the KCR,” he added.
He said that he did not want to indulge in any blame-game;
otherwise, verdict of the Supreme Court was there about the
PR lands whereas the local government was also shareholder in the
Karachi Urban Transport Company.
“Administrative matters and development projects should
not fall prey to politics,” he said.
Saad said that China is a great friend and the nation was
thankful to it for investment, but loan should always be
taken in limits and burden of the loans could not be passed on
to the next generations.
“There is no confusion in our minds about provision of
facilities to the people of Karachi, which is our responsibility,”
he said.
“We had some reservations about the KCR, which had been
addressed after provision of details,” he concluded.
PR CEO Humayun Rasheed, Advisor to PR Minister Anjum
Pervaiz and other officers from the railways while Director
General Sindh Mass-transit Authority M Athar led the Sindh
government delegation.

Source: APP