EDITORIAL: Pakistan Railways’ latest reform push places a welcome emphasis on property recovery, digitisation and service upgrades. The minister reports Rs15 billion in railway land already retrieved and a further Rs50 billion targeted this year, with a stated policy that core property is non-saleable and will be put to revenue-sharing use. The scale alone tells its own story. Encroachment is not episodic, it is systemic. If land is now being “recovered”, it was first lost. The central question is why the basic vigilance expected of a national infrastructure custodian was missing for so long, and what action has been taken against those who facilitated these losses inside and outside government.
Karachi offers an instructive case. Efforts to revive the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) have repeatedly run into encroachments along the alignment, including permanent structures erected on railway land in violation of the law. This is not merely a historical footnote, it is a governance failure across multiple tiers. Rights-of-way that should be inviolable were treated as disposable. If the present drive is to be credible, the public needs clarity on which parcels have been recovered, which remain under dispute, and the timeline to clear and secure the remaining sections needed for passenger and freight operations.
Recovery must be institutional, not ad hoc. A proper digital record of all railway land, linked with provincial and municipal registries, should be created and kept updated. A public online portal showing boundaries, legal ownership, and lease details would add transparency and discourage encroachment. Clear approval procedures must be enforced so that no transfer or lease can take place without a verifiable trail. Where long-standing occupations involve low-income families, resettlement should be handled through proper legal frameworks so that problems do not recur. Just as important, disciplinary action must be taken against officials who enabled these violations, and the results made public to restore confidence.
Monetisation demands equal discipline. If assets are to be used through revenue-sharing partnerships, the terms must be transparent, competitively tendered and benchmarked to market valuations. Operational reforms are necessary complements. Solar power at 155 stations, with 60 already converted, and the roll-out of Wi-Fi and automated services can reduce operating costs and improve passenger experience. Digitising freight bookings and tightening revenue controls, including curbing ticket theft and meter losses, address leakage that should never have been tolerated. Outsourcing 11 passenger trains already, with a target of 38 by December, and handing some freight services to commercial operators can raise service levels if executed with care. That requires enforceable service standards, safety oversight, labour protections and transparent reporting on punctuality, availability and failures. Without such safeguards, outsourcing risks hollowing out core capability rather than strengthening it.
Procurement integrity is a parallel test. The ministry has acknowledged that rolling stock procured eight years ago has worn out despite a 30-year life expectancy, and has ordered an inquiry. This cannot end at inquiry. Specifications, testing, warranties and supplier accountability must be tightened, blacklisting used where warranted, and recoveries pursued for substandard deliveries. Otherwise, capital budgets will continue to fund assets that do not deliver their designed life, and operating deficits will persist.
Pakistan Railways is both an operator and a steward of public land. Without discipline over its land, every other reform leaks value. The current recovery and modernisation agenda is a start, but the credibility test lies in durable custody of corridors like the Karachi Circular Railway, transparent partnerships that monetise assets without surrendering control, and visible accountability for those who enabled illegal occupation. Announcements will not restore confidence. Enforced titles with prosecuted breaches and publicly reported results will.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025