KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has refused to give Non Reconciliation Order (NRO) to anyone, said federal minister for Pakistan Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad. “I asked him to let everyone go, but he (Imran Khan) said he won’t give NRO to anyone,” he said.
Speaking to the media on Mondayat the inauguration ceremony of new train freight service from Karachi Port Trust (KPT) to upcountry after a passage of 25 years, he said gathering of opposition on one page is no cause of concern. In fact those seeking NRO should be worried, he said and added the opposition is being trapped in its own snare,
“We wanted to control inflation, and make gas available at lower prices,” but both Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif robbed the country ruthlessly in the last 10 years. Criticizing the Sindh's Minister for Health, Azra Pechuho, he said she should immediately resign for failure to control the HIV epidemic in the province. “He said a time would come when the people from Sindh would be denied visa due to widespread prevalence of AIDS in the province.” He said nowhere in the world there are so many AIDS patients as in Larkana these days. They have converted Sindh into Aidistan,” Rashid said. Regarding MQM, he said they have good terms with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The railways minister said they have provided trains for Sukkur, Mohenjo Daro and Shah Latif town. According to Ahmad the freight train would now operate from Rawalpindi to Karachi after a passage of 25 years. Speaking to The News a KPT official the trader community would largely benefit from the freight train due to major reduction in cost of transportation. The terminals which used to remain choked due to delay in dispatching goods through trucks and containers would now empty quickly and easily. The container owners who would normally resort to strikes by blocking supply of goods to the entire country, would also have lesser impact, as goods would be transported through railways.
The DS Railways Karachi, Syed Mazhar Ali Shah, said earlier their connectivity with the KPT was weak due to which roads of Karachi would get congested by the huge containers taking good up country. To solve this issue, he said the Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi and Federal Minister for Railways Sh Rashid Ahmad decided in February to revive Pakistan Railway’s connectivity with the KPT. “ Now the handling of goods at KPT will improve drastically with its revival,”added previously the tracks were in a very poor shape." A single freight train, he explained will reduce as much as 200 trucks from the roads of Karachi. To a question regarding the number of locomotives for the operation, the DS Railways, said they would try their best to meet the KPT’s demands. “We have the engines, but our rolling staff is less and we are trying to improve them,” he said.
Meanwhile, a meeting was also held at City Railway Station under Federal Minister for Railways Sh Rashid participated by Mayor Karachi, Wasim Akhtar, DS Railway Karachi, Syed Mazhar Ali Shah, SSP Railways Shahla Qureshi, Chief Secretary Sindh Mumtaz Shah and Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani to take stock of the Supreme Court orders for the removal of encroachments along the Karachi Circular Railway route.
Sh Rashid was briefed about the anti-encroachment operation being carried out on the railway land and it was also decided to speed it up the operation. The rehabilitation plan for those evicted from the railways land was also discussed in the meeting. Later, Sh Rashid visited the KCR track along with Mayor and chief secretary Mumtaz Shah on a rail trolley. Rashid also visited the Wazir Mansion Railway Station.
Speaking to the media after the visit, Sh Rashid said the meeting was informed that on the orders of the Supreme Court out of 45 kilometer long KCR track, 20 kilometers have already been cleared of encroachments. He said the KCR project was closed in 1999, which, he pledged to revive again. He assured the removal of encroachments from 50-feet of both sides of the railways track. He said within a fortnight the encroachments would be removed with the coordination of all the departments. He also assured to make the salaries of Railway Police equal to those of Punjab Police.
The Chief Secretary Sindh, Mumtaz Shah said a large portion of KCR land was vacated from encroachments. Meanwhile, Mayor Wasim Akhtar said Karachi is full of encroachments. “From electricity to water everything is being stolen in Katchi Abadis,” he said and added the Supreme Court wants a master plan to be formulated and acted upon. The federal government is supporting them, he said and added they want the KCR to be operational as it would resolve the city's transportation woes.
In a related development, the anti-encroachment operation to clear KCR’s track continued on Monday. The operation was carried out at Gilani railway station near Urdu college. Around 11 acres land was supposed to be cleared of encroachments from this spot.