The derailment near Rawalpindi of the Karachi-bound Zulfikar Express, causing the loss of at least nine lives, is the fourth major train mishap in the last 12 months. Over a hundred people have been killed and many others injured in these rail disasters. The inquiries conducted after each accident indicate serious flaws in provisions for equipment maintenance, and a lack of supervised training for staff. These problems indicate the faulty manner in which Pakistan Railways is being run. Yet, without exception, it is low-level officials who have been held accountable for train accidents while their superiors have survived without facing so much as a temporary suspension.
Incredibly, in almost each case, the federal railways minister, far from holding himself up for accountability, opted to distance himself from the happening, leaving even the routine gestures of condoling the dead and visiting the site to other members of the government. For 48 hours after the Sihala train accident, the railways minister had not condescended to break from his Eid celebrations to visit the grisly scene of the mishap.
Whereas a station master certainly deserves to be taken to task when he is guilty of negligence, those responsible for supervising staff and equipment must surely share a large portion of the blame when similar negligence recurs to take human lives. Responsibility increases rather than decreases with rank. The fact that railways staff at various levels have repeatedly warned that the equipment situation is so serious as to present a safety hazard suggests that urgent measures need to be taken. This initiative must necessarily come from the top.
A drastic overhaul of Pakistan Railways is urgently needed, given its fiscal and managerial problems. After each mishap, warnings were issued that the crumbling state of machinery and manpower within the organisation means the next accident is not far away. In each case, such warnings have largely been ignored. The findings of inquiries have been shelved. Little effort has been made to replace damaged brake equipment or restructure areas of functioning which, due largely to a shortage of trained personnel and safety regulations devised during the colonial period, have gradually broken down over the decades.
This can only mean more accidents will continue to occur if the warning signals are not heeded. The series of mishaps, both major and relatively minor, shows all is far from well on the tracks. It is vital that someone take measures now rather than wait for the next disaster to claim more victims, and leave their blood trickling down the tracks.
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