The meeting of the Standing Committee on Railways held today under the Chairmanship of Mr. Muhammad Mueen Wattoo, MNA, in Committee Room No. 2 (1st Floor) Parliament House, Islamabad.
The meeting of the Committee commenced with the recitation from the Holy Quran. After the condolence reference and prayers for deceased passengers of the incident of Tezgam Express, the Committee approved the minutes of its last meeting.
Later, the Chairman invited M/O Railways to brief on the agenda item regarding the recent fire tragedy of 7 UP train “Tezgam express”, at Chani Goth, Tehsil Liaquatpur, District Rahim Yar Khan. The Secretary, Railways informed that the train was routed from Karachi to Peshawar and at 6.14 am on 31/10/2019, the driver came to know about the fire so he stopped immediately and detached the bogies on fire but till that many passengers burned/injured over there. He informed the Committee that during the incident, 75 passengers were dead upto 12/11/2019 and out of which 63 dead bodies were handed over to their relatives and remaining 12 will be handed over in next two to three days. Federal Government Inspector of Railway (FGIRR) was assigned to enquire the matter thoroughly and mean while the Federal Minister for Railways has already announced the relief package out of insurance money for the dead and injured passengers. Minister for Railways also informed that he has requested the Prime Minister to announce further relief for the victim of the incident which is under ways. Minister for Railways also thanked Pak Army who reached on the site and helped a lot to transfer the passengers in nearby hospital and at Nishtar Hospital, Multan through Air Ambulance.
The Chairman emphasize that Railway may not be deviated from his responsibility as reaching the gas cylinder in the train is the severe negligence. He further suggested that Railway should take precautionary measure so that such incident may not be happened in future.
Reportedly, this fire incident took place due to either leakage of gas cylinder owned by the passengers of Tabligi Jammat, short circuiting or sabotage activity as stated by the Senior General Manger Railways during the briefing. However, the final inquiry report is still awaited from Federal Govt. inspector of Railways (FGIR) which will be completed in two weeks and true facts unearth. He further informed that 15 employees of Railways have been charge sheeted due to the said incident.
The Committee expressed their concern over the Railways safety measures taken for passengers as these are not compatible with the international safety measures adopted by the other countries. However, the Committee unanimously passed the resolution that Railways should take necessary safety measures for the safety of their passengers and the Committee also paid condolence to the relative of all deceased and injured passengers of the incident.
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