Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Supreme Court on Friday expressed dissatisfaction over the statement of the Secretary Railways and ordered for complete overhauling and retrenchment of 76,000 employees in Railways.
A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan heard the case pertaining to the permanent status of the Railway employees. The court sought a detailed report on the operations of Pakistan Railways and its employees within a month.
During the course of proceedings, the court stated that the Railways should sort out unnecessary and incompetent employees.
The Chief Justice said that the court was not at all satisfied with the statement of the Secretary Railways. The Railways department was full of incompetent employees who were not loyal to their departments, he added. He said that the Railways suffer from frequent accidents which resulted in heavy loss of life and property. He asked the Secretary how many incidents have occurred during your tenure?. The Railways official should go into the field and see how the employees were performing, rather than doing the office work.
The Chief Justice inquired about the number of employees working in the Railways, to which the secretary replied that there were 76,000 employees, 142 passenger trains, and 120 freight carriages. Due to the coronavirus, only 43 passenger trains are operational these days, informed the Railway official.
The Chief Justice said that the Railways hired 76,000 people but to run the system of railways only 10,000 employees were enough. The secretary said that computerized data of all the employees was not available, adding that the prime minister was working to bring reforms based on a six-point agenda. Later hearing of the case was adjourned for one month.
