Pakistan Railways emergency till December 31: what changes after 55 accidents

Pakistan Railways is under an emergency until 31 December. Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi announced it on Saturday, 24 October, after a run of derailments, and officers have lost their leave and weekends for the rest of the year. The orders are aimed at staff and maintenance; no train cancellations were announced with them.

The Express Tribune, cited by Arab News, counts more than 55 accidents involving passenger and freight trains since 1 January. Dawn reports seven in July alone, and railway sources told ProPakistani the Sukkur, Karachi and Multan divisions have had the most. The one that pushed this over the edge came on 13 October, when the Karachi-to-Peshawar Rehman Baba Express derailed near Sher Shah outside Multan. Dawn put the toll at five dead; the AP reported four, with around 30 to 35 injured.

What the emergency actually changes

Most of it is about officers, not passengers. According to Dawn and Arab News:

• All leave except medical leave is cancelled for officers and staff until 31 December, and so are public holidays, Saturdays and Sundays.
• Field officers must be out on the line watching operations, including on Sundays.
• Officers on official tours must travel by train. Flights won’t be reimbursed and official cars are off-limits. Abbasi says he will travel from Rawalpindi to Lahore by railcar himself until the year ends.
• The chief engineers for civil and mechanical departments, and the head of safety, must send the ministry a report every day.

The “dummy coaches” problem

The more interesting order is about the trains themselves. Abbasi wants every “dummy” coach and wagon, meaning faulty or brakeless units, either repaired or taken off the tracks by 31 December. Dawn reports that 36,000 brake cylinders have started arriving, that 1,546 coaches and wagons have been checked so far, and that the remaining roughly 3,000 should be inspected by 10 November. Workshops have until 30 November to meet the demand for concrete and wooden sleepers.

The department’s own list of causes is blunt: worn-out track, dummy coaches, the manual point system (the old kanta switches), human error, poor maintenance and not enough money. Abbasi says he is clearing a maintenance backlog that built up over ten years and that every coach, wagon and locomotive will be fit to run from January.

Will passengers feel the difference?

Honestly, not right away. Cancelling leave puts more eyes on the line, and making officers ride the trains they run is a smart touch: it is hard to ignore a rattling coach when you are sitting in it. But tracks and signalling are the deeper problem, and that kind of work takes years and serious money, not a ten-week sprint.

Two dates are worth watching. If the inspection of the remaining 3,000 coaches and wagons is finished by 10 November, Pakistan Railways should be able to say how many units it is pulling out, and whether that means fewer coaches on popular trains over the winter holidays. And the real test is January, when the minister says the fleet will be fit. Meanwhile, the federal inspector’s inquiry into the Multan derailment is still due.