Pakistan railways (PR), either pivot of development or devolution?

Let me begin with a brief introduction, We (Tuaha khan, Izharullah and sharjeel Ahmed) are students of the department of governance and public policy (GPP), and are currently enrolled in the BS-6^th PAG (Public administration and governance), doing the course of Public Sector Reforms and social change under the supervision of Dr. Athar Rashid. In this course, we all are assigned to different public sectors and are responsible for contributing towards the reforms in these public sectors. In this blog, we will be talking about the public sector Pakistan Railways (PR). Our purpose today is, to share information about Pakistan Railways (PR).

 Before going towards the overview and historical development of Pakistan Railways (PR), the aims and objectives of our project are:

•       To identify the major issues of the railway sector of Pakistan.

•       To identify the Reforms contribution of government of Pakistan in the betterment of the railway department.

•       To compare the Pakistan and world's successful railway sectors.

•       To highlight the importance of the railway department in international relations and the economic development of Pakistan.

•       To highlight the relation of SDG's with the railway department.

•       To suggest youth-level reforms to tackle the growing problems of the railway sector.

 

We all know that Pakistan railway is a state-owned transport service, operating under the federal government and headquartered in Lahore. It owns an 11,881 km (2022) track across Pakistan, having 8 operating divisions: Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Sukkur, and Gwadar. Pakistan Railways play an important role in the political, economic, and social development of Pakistan. It is employing more than 80,000 people across Pakistan, promotes trade, contributes towards the GDP of Pakistan, pivots of industrial and commercial development, promotes national integration, cheapest and safest mode of transportation.

Going back to a pre-partition time, in the era of British colonialism, we see that the idea of a rail network was first given by Henry Edward in 1847. On 13^th May 1861, the first railway line was opened in public between Karachi and kotri. After 1970, the Indian railways became the Pakistan railways. The question is, what went wrong? How Pakistan's railway system went bankrupt while neighboring countries performed admirably in railways.

We see that the primary mode of transport in Pakistan was railways but after 1970 road transport becomes more eminent and in turn shifted the focus from the railway to road infrastructure. From 2005-2010, the expenditure on railways was only Rs. 45bn compared to 155bn on national highways. The crisis on railways was started in 1970 and continuously increasing, which is creating a burden on the economy of Pakistan. Interference from politicians and bureaucracy, as well as the failure to update the inherited 19th-century railway infrastructure, has resulted in mere mismanagement and rot. The Political developments were not proved beneficial to the system. In the time of 2008-12, the deficit of the railways had increased from RS 12.6 billion to RS 18.6 billion in 2008-09, then, in the following year, 2009-10, the deficit reached RS 20.1 billion and in the following year it reached RS 26.9 billion and in 2012-13 it reached RS 30.5 billion.

           

Considering the above deficit statistics, which have increased with each passing year, we can conclude that it was the inefficiencies of the government during their tenure that prevented them from dealing with the situation effectively. They continued to burden the economy rather than reform the sectors. The NLC (national logistic cell) was also a major contributor to the decline of the freight train role in the Pakistan railway because it focuses on road freight rather than rail freight. Pakistan Railways are essential in Pakistan because they are the cheapest mode of transportation, almost everyone can afford it, it is environmentally friendly and emits less pollution than other vehicles, accidents by trains are much lower than other vehicles, the average death rate per year on railways is less than 100, whereas road transportation has above 10,000 deaths, During disasters, railways are thought to be the most efficient means of moving relief materials in the least amount of time.

The failure of Pakistan railways PR is mainly due to the multifaceted issues of bad governance, political intervention, mismanagement, corruption, insufficient human resources, poor infrastructure, poor maintenance of tracks and bridges, and massive deficits. Furthermore, the increasing percentage of investment in road infrastructure and the sustained low investment in Pakistani railways have had a negative influence on Pakistani railway's financial status.

As students of public sector reforms and social change, we will make suggestions for reforms or improvements to the railway department. All students are encouraged to contribute reform ideas.

Regards,

Tuaha khan, IzharUllah and Sharjeel Ahmed.