According to the Ministry of Railways, the Pakistan Railways have seen more than 74 accidents nationwide over almost a year Out of these 74, the Ministry reported that 24 occurred due to freight trains derailing while another 20 occurred at unsupervised railway crossings, which means more than half the accidents were a result of human error. 19 accidents occurred due to passenger trains derailing while 3 others were caused by fire.
No improvement of Pakistan Railways
The PTI government has also reportedly done nothing to improve the state of affairs of Pakistan Railways, with ML-1 track that is considered to be “the lifeline of Pakistan Railways” has completed more than 50% of its life.
Previous major train incidents in the past year
In the past year, there have been two major train incidents in Pakistan. One resulted in the death of three and several others injured because a passenger train crashed into a freight car. The second tragedy resulted in 21 killed and 85 injured in yet another collision between trains.
3rd major accident on train tracks takes place
Now, the latest train track accident has resulted in the deaths of over 60 civilians, with dozens more injured, as a cylinder blasted and set 3 bogies on fire on a Tezgam train heading to Rawalpindi from Karachi.
Sheikh Rasheed blames passengers for train track accident
All heads have turned towards Railway Minister Sheikh Rasheed who, instead of taking accountability for his negligence towards improving security and infrastructure of Pakistan Railways, blamed the passengers for bringing gas cylinders for cooking on board. Many are arguing that while gas cylinders are a prohibited item, it was the responsibility of railway security to take care of the matter.
Gas cylinders are clearly prohibited items that cannot be booked as luggage. It is the responsibility of the railways to ensure these safety guidelines are followed by all. Sh. Rasheed placing the blame on passengers isn't just callous, it's also clearly wrong #Tezgam pic.twitter.com/2vx1oBOAiY
— Reema Omer (@reema_omer) October 31, 2019
Public calls for Sheikh Rasheed’s resignation
Following the incident and Sheikh Rasheed’s response as well as repeated pattern of negligence, the public is calling for his resignation as Railway Minister.
Sheikh Rasheed should be immediately fired from his position as Railways Minister. He has made Pakistan's Railways a death machine. Tezgam incident has taken 65 precious lives. #tezgam #TrainAccident pic.twitter.com/hRkZtlf24t
— Masoud Ur Rehman (@masoudkhann1) October 31, 2019
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