LAHORE: Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique issues Supreme Court ruling in 2019 on land leasing as damaging to revenue, saying it costs the department billions of rupees a year in damages. starve and continue to have difficulty even clearing employee and retiree contributions in a timely manner.
Accepted the Railway’s Review Application:
He also accepted the Railway’s review application and asked the Supreme Court to allow Pakistan Railways to relinquish land for commercial use for at least 20 years so that it could increase its income and emerge from the financial crisis. Appealed. It’s been facing for about 4 years.
Losses Faced By Pakistan Railway:
Khwaja Saad said that the Supreme Court ruling allows railways to use the land only for its core business and not for other purposes (for commercial purposes up to 99 years). The high was only 2.7 billion rupees, which could have been increased to 7 billion rupees,” the minister told journalists at a news conference on Tuesday. “PR faced billions of dollars in losses as a result of this decision,
PR land leases were made at disposable prices:
It is worth noting that in January 2019, while hearing a case in which PR land leases were made at disposable prices, the [then] Supreme Court’s three-man bench (led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Saqib Nisar ) reportedly ordered the Bureau not to sell the land. Own or lease land for more than 5 years.
PRSC Huge Revenue Loss:
Minister Sheikh Rashid, who was present at the court, assured the jury that PR “will not sell the Marla land.” However, he told the court that part of the land has been leased from him for 3 years to 5 years and the department receives an annual income of Rs 30 million. Also, if the court terminates the lease, the railway will suffer financial losses.
Karachi Registry Case:
In other case at Karachi registry in june 2021, Supreme Court bench headed by CJP Gulzar Ahmad, expressed displeasure over the accident and reported plans to sell land in Sindh, saying that the railway site would be We have ruled that it may not be leased. or transferred to an individual or employee, but may only be used for operational purposes. In light of these rulings, PR said he couldn’t rent out a square foot of land to anyone, and their earnings plummeted in nearly two years.
The minister said that if the SC had listened patiently to the PR legal team’s arguments and allowed them to issue medium-term leases of land to private organizations for commercial purposes, their revenues would have tripled.
He said he is confident to say that there was no scam of the PR’s land in last 10 years.
Financial crisis Faced:
Regarding the financial crisis facing the sector, Mr Rafique said PR suffered a loss of Rs 1.6 billion as a result of rising petroleum product prices and dollar exchange rate over the past year. In addition, recent floods since August this year have caused extensive damage to infrastructure and finances. “There are two ways to alleviate this economic stress. One is to plead with the already financially distressed federal government. increase, improve freight and passenger train operations, and streamline fares/charges. Private companies typically do not lease railroad land for five years, he said. Therefore, PR hopes to allow SC to lease his 175,000 acres of land for commercial purposes on medium-term leases (approximately 20 years).
Private Housing Projects:
He said that to meet the challenge, PR has decided to allow private housing projects to use the land to build underpasses and other infrastructure. “But for that, applicants looking for passages from PR will have to deposit Rs 100 crore each as a processing fee. was to close trains, streamline fares and fares, increase freight traffic on the Quetta-Taftan line, and lay fiber optic along the line tracked by private individuals. – Rawalpindi Railway trains will also be closed,” he said, adding that a flood-damaged iron bridge separating the Balochistan-Punjab railway link will be built soon as the NLC is functioning. I am working hard on the project.
Conclusion:
In response to questions, he said the PR administration had refused to accept the resignation of senior PR official Mian Tariq Latif. He told his interrogators that Shehbaz Sharif would be leaving for China soon, where he would speak to ML-1 and he would talk about problems with the KCR project.