Shafqat Mahmood reviews progress on institutional reforms

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture Shafqat Mahmood presided over the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms here on Friday.

The committee reviewed the progress of the Pakistan Railways Restructuring Plan. Pakistan Railways Secretary Habibur Rehman Gilani briefed the committee on governance, operational, financial, and automation reforms, and human resource and capacity building in Pakistan Railways.

The chairman of the committee Mahmood showed serious concerns over the encroachment of Pakistan Railways land from Karachi to Peshawar. “The people have established their settlements, facilities like electricity and gas have been installed, link roads and streets being developed on Railways land. If the issue is not timely resolved, it may jeopardise the whole ML1 mega project of Pakistan Railways,” he added.

The committee suggested the Pakistan Railways hire consultants and set up a separate directorate of Pakistan Railways to deal with the issue of encroachment on a priority basis. "Of one hundred and sixty-four thousand acres land, almost eight thousand acres land of PR has been encroached."