Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways is yet to establish the Directorate of Heritage for preservation, maintenance and development of heritage.

Former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique had announced the establishment of the directorate in 2017, reliable sources told Daily Times.

“The Pakistan Railways possesses numerous heritage railway stations and monuments, which are being neglected and getting derelict due to aging and weathering,” sources said, adding that PR is also the custodian of antiques, furniture and archives which should have been preserved for the generations ahead.

Sources expressed their distress over the lack of access to the sites and monuments under the PR as they were closed for public. They lamented that PR had not started the listing of all historical monuments, sites, stations and other areas that fall under its domain and expressed fear that many of them would disappear like the previous ones.

So far only the century-old Golra Railway Station, located on the outskirts of Islamabad, had been restored while a heritage museum had also been established therein.

But other historical railways stations, including that of Karachi and Lahore, present a gloomy picture.

Saleema Qasim, a student, said: “We have read and heard a lot about the Railways of Pakistan but while visiting any railway station are unable to see any depiction of the past.” She said that historical boards and plaques had been erected in the railway stations in London and other European countries and the same was needed to be done here to describe the history and importance of stations.

“We are in the process of restructuring staff against various grades. Our colleague Maqsood Nabi is working on the restructuring mechanism and the heritage directorate will also be established after the restructuring,” Pakistan Railway Advisory and Consultancy Services (PRACS) Managing Director Zubair Shafi Ghauri told Daily Times.

“Earlier, it was proposed that in-house staff would be used for the purpose for which the structuring from grade 1 to 16 had been done. We will be having almost 41 officers for all the divisions in Pakistan. We will also advertise posts after the ban on recruitments is lifted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),” he maintained.

Further drilling down, Ghauri said that former archaeology official Dr Iqbal Bhutta had been taken on board for the purpose. “We have also spoken to the Archaeology Department for their support”.

About the heritage properties under the domain of the PR, Ghauri said that most of them were in a dilapidated condition and were in a dire need of repair and maintenance.

He added that the PR was also upgrading and expanding the stations given the influx of passengers. “We have not yet made any list of the heritage sites with PR. Our foremost work is to provide better travelling facilities to the people and simultaneously we are working on the conservation and restoration,” he added.

“The conservation process would start from Karachi as it was the oldest station but we will be spreading teams all over Pakistan in a later stage,” he concluded.

Published in Daily Times, June 12^th 2018.