LAHORE, Pakistan: The Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique on Saturday said no political pressure would be tolerated and decisions would not be allowed to bulldoze in hasten.
“We are ready to lay down foundation stone of the KCR (Karachi Circular Railways) by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah but seriousness and sincerity should be shown from both sides,” the minister said while addressing a meeting between the PR administration and a delegation of the Sindh government on KCR held at the Railways Headquarters in Lahore.
The minister said the KCR was a historical and important project which should have been completed 30 years ago. He said he had enjoyed the journey of tram, adding 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,” Saad said.
“We are ready to cooperate on the KCR project but do not want to cause any loss to the nation,” he added.
The railways 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.
Saad Rafique directed the PR to cooperate on KCR for making it a profitable department by running it on commercial basis.
Saad said 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 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.
The railways minister said 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 China was 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,” the minister said.
“We had some reservations about the KCR, which had been addressed after provision of details,” he added.
