Pakistan Railways has collected an amount of Rs 74.8 million from ticket-less passengers in a crackdown during the three two months with the help of railway police and train staffers. “Around 58,446 passengers found travelling without tickets in different trains and collected the said amount from them, which is deposited in the official bank account of the department,” sources in the Ministry told APP.
They said that it was not the first time that action was taken on a large scale against ticket-less passengers, adding that these types of crackdowns had taken place daily. The sources said that ticketless travelling was illegal, and those who were caught without a ticket were charged a ticket price for the whole journey of the train besides the penalty. Those who do not pay are handed over to the railway police. To a question, they said that Pakistan Railways Police claimed to have arrested a total of 3,923 accused due to their involvement in violations of rules and laws and also registered some 3,625 cases against them in eight Railways divisions over one year.
“Around 658 cases were registered in Peshawar Division, 577 in Rawalpindi, 1,044 in Lahore, 326 in Mughalpura workshops, 393 in Multan, 208 in Sukkur, 346 in Karachi, and 73 in Quetta Division,” they added. They said the Railways Police Help Desks had been established at all the major railway stations across the country, and the performance of the Railways Police has been quite satisfactory during the last year. Regarding the performance of the railway police, they said, “Police are performing duties efficiently despite the limited resources, and the performance of the railway police will be further improved to the optimum level during the next year.”