No remorse over NA legislation giving extension to Gen Bajwa: Saad Rafique

LAHORE    -    Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique Sunday said that his party had no re­morse over the legislation done in the National Assembly way back in 2019 to grant extension in service to outgoing army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. 

Replying to a question at a press conference here, the fed­eral minister said that it was a well thought out decision by the PNL-N over a constitution­al bill and they had no regrets about it. “We also have no re­gerts over the decision to move a no-trust motion against Im­ran Khan. We are not like Im­ran Khan who keeps changing his stance and decisions over different issues. Now he is ex­pressing regrets over the ex­tension given to Gen Bajwa but just before the no-confidence he had offered yet another ex­tension to the army chief”, he observed. 

The federal minister said that the facilitators of ‘Project Im­ran’ had gone now and the air­planes used to bring people [for supporting Imran] were no longer available in the new situation. He also revealed that while he was in jail, he had been offered the chief minister­ship and to make forward bloc in the party, but he remained steadfast. 

Earlier, addressing the press conference, the federal min­ister further said that conti­nuity of policies was essential to strengthen Railways or any other department in the coun­try. He thanked Chinese Com­pany CRRC, its staff and railway officials for completing the first phase of a project related to high-speed coaches, manufac­tured by the CRRC. He said that 46 coaches had arrived in Paki­stan and the project was con­ceived in 2017. He said that in this regard an agreement was signed in 2021, which should have been signed in 2018. Un­fortunately, the project was de­layed due to which its cost had increased by billions of rupees. He said all-out efforts were be­ing made to tackle the issue.

The Railways minister said that the completely built unit (CBU) coaches were only 46, and the rest of coaches would be made in Pakistan at the car­riage factory Islamabad. Trans­fer of technology would also be carried out soon after which Railways would not obtain the CBU for such coaches, he add­ed. Saad Rafique urged the Rail­ways engineering department to fully benefit from the trans­fer of technology initiative as it would be helpful for improving the CFI Unit of the department. He said that sincere efforts were being made for evolving a 10-year roadmap for Railways at the earliest. Khawaja said, “In 2018, the PSDP of railways was

Rs 43 billion and it only in­creased by Rs 4 billions in four years of the PTI government.” He said that not a single loco­motive had been included in a fleet besides no addition of any new coach.

During the tenure of the PTI government, Railways was bad­ly mismanaged, he said add­ing that now efforts were being made once again to stream­line the things. He said that Railways land had been digi­tialised, which was a great step in the right direction. 

The minister said that land of civil aviation would also be digitalised and Railways Land Director General was provid­ing assistance in this regard on the basis of his experience. He said that Railways land would have to be utilised for generat­ing revenue, adding that spe­cial focus was being made on branding. Regarding optic fi­bre, he said that all stakehold­ers should come up with a rev­enue sharing formula. He said that dedicated efforts were be­ing made to bring improve­ment in Pakistan Airlines be­sides wiping out cartels and mafias in aviation. He said that work on the Main Line-1 proj­ect would be started again and he thanked the Chinese leader­ship in this regard.