KARACHI - Pakistan Railway (PR) department is waiting for the response of its summary sent to the Prime Minister in which it proposed the government not to privatise the railway department for at least two years. In May 2010, General Manager of Pakistan Railways had sent a summary to the government seeking non-privatisation of the department. The PR chief in the summary has assured the government that the railway department would be pulled out from the ongoing crises by its own resources. Pakistan Railways has also proposed closing down at least those 100 passenger trains which are causing huge financial losses. According to railway sources, the trains which were proposed for closing are functioning across the country. Earlier 16 trains have already been proposed for closure. The authorities made recommendations to conclude such a big number of trains service due to huge financial loss of Rs50 billion. Expressing deep concern over such recommendation by the railway head, the Pakistan Railway Labour Union has rejected it. The union leaders said that after the brutal damages of the railway department in riots erupted after December 27, 2007, by the miscreants in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the railway department has not been stable and the higher authorities have never been honest in order to restore the full train service. The union representatives said that the railway department had already been facing shortage of the trains. The people who used to travel by trains would suffer a lot if more trains would be closed down. It is worth mentioning here that despite passing of almost three years of the great damages of Pakistan Railway, complete train service is yet to be restored. Before the said riots, at least 350 passenger and over 40 goods trains were operating across the country, in which 27 trains were running from Karachi to upper part of the country. But only 220 passenger and 28 good trains could have been restored so far, wherein only 28 trains have been allocated for Karachi. In case of approval of the summary to decrease the number of trains, only 120 trains would be allocated for across the country. The railway department is still facing shortage of locomotives, coaches, power plants and other basic needs to function the complete train service. Recently the government has announced allocating Rs23 billion for the railways in the new budget. On the other side, Manzoor Razi, president Federation of Railway Workers, said that despite the fact mostly the trains were over-packed with the passengers but the authorities have been insisting to show the crises in the department. Accusing the high-ups of Pakistan Railway, Razi said that due to their negligence complete train service has not been restored yet. After the huge loss in the railway department, a single official has not even bothered to visit any station, he added. He demanded of the government to interfere into the matter and take initiative to resume the train service.