Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid sworn in on 20 August, 2018, has presented his overambitious plan for the Ministry not to the cabinet, like the rest of his colleagues, but to the media during the first week of his tenure. The Minister correctly acknowledged that “no railway can survive without freight [trains] and neither can we,” a truism reflected in profitable railways around the world running 5 to 6 freight trains to every passenger train.

Sheikh Rashid’s extremely comprehensive plan for Pakistan Railways included establishing 8 dry ports, upgrading 31 stations, with the Chaklala and Margalla stations to be upgraded on a priority basis, planting trees on both sides of the track across the country to secure the railway line and for tackling environmental issues, begin a fast train from Karachi to Sukkur and another from Rawalpindi to Multan and Karachi (to begin as soon as railway carriages are available), building commercial plazas/food streets on railway land, selling railway guest houses, building 5000 houses for Class-IV railway employees, generating 20,000 jobs, upgrading Railways’ hospitals, doubling the existing track with investment under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC); and claiming railway land that has been grabbed by the land mafia.

Given that this is the second time Sheikh Rashid has been given the railway portfolio, one would have thought he would be cognizant of the fact that railway land is allotted by provinces for use by railways and any attempt to sell it to the private sector may be challenged in a court of law by the relevant province and hence sale of guest houses and/or building commercial plazas may not be implementable, especially in Sindh where the opposition forms the government. In addition, previous sale/long lease of railway land generated considerable controversy followed by accusations of corruption and kickbacks, an example being Royal Palm in Lahore, constructed on land leased by the then Railways Minister, former DG ISI Javed Ashraf Qazi, at a throwaway price causing a reported loss of 4.8 billion rupees – a matter still under litigation.

The other major impediment to fulfilling Sheikh Rashid’s vision is a paucity of available government funds. Acknowledging this, Sheikh Rashid stated “We do not have the money to do this ourselves, thus we are inviting private companies to help us. I am announcing that Railways is open [for business], anyone who wants to bring any kind of investment, they can. In fact, if overseas Pakistanis want to run [passenger] trains or freight [trains] here, they are welcome to do so all they need to do is pay us the rent for our tracks.” He also invited private companies to brand rail cabins with advertisements.

And finally, Sheikh Rashid intimated that the National Logistics Cell and the Frontier Works Organisation may be given the major chunk of railway construction work, “so that there is no waiting around for tenders”. This is dangerous talk while being a part of an administration that is committed to ending corruption. Additionally, Sheikh Rashid would be well advised to look at accusations hurled by Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of National Awami Party (ANP), the Railways Minister during the PPP-led coalition government’s tenure, when he accused NLC of poaching Railways freight business and reducing it from 68 percent to 28 percent.

Sheikh Rashid’s predecessor Saad Rafique, during his five-year tenure as Railways Minister, increased revenue from 18 billion rupees in 2012-13 to 40 billion rupees by shifting focus away from passenger trains to freight by plying as many as 55 new freight-specific locomotives of 4000 to 4500HP (which raised revenue from 11 percent from freight in 2013 to 35 percent), introduction of e-ticketing and outsourcing commercial management of trains under public-private partnership. However, Sheikh Rashid claimed that the Railways loss was 37 to 40 billion rupees for 2017-18 and accused the “previous corrupt, dishonest government tooting its own horns claiming that the industry is doing well.” Dismissing gains by a predecessor and/or a bureaucrat is a shallow approach which may have accounted for the Chief Commercial Officer PR to seek a two-year leave of absence. Dismissing all gains by one’s predecessor is a politically naive approach and Sheikh Rashid would be well advised to take ownership of the gains made by his predecessor while highlighting how he would further improve the functioning of the entity he now heads.