Pressure from unions: Performing duty costs railway adviser his job

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday accepted the resignation of Jamshed Inam Shaikh as the adviser on railways after employee unions had started protesting against him for introducing reforms.

The prime minister had appointed Shaikh in December to identify ghost and additional employees in the Pakistan Railways. However, identifying these did not play in his favour, as the railway unions started protesting against him.

In the first phase, Shaikh identified 422 ghost employees. He also found out that out of 65,000 employees, 3,000 did not come to the office and worked from home.

The last straw for employees was when he decided to introduce computerised attendance, which led to protests intensifying even further, and ultimately, to his resignation. The government has allocated Rs30,025.590 million in funds for Pakistan Railways for the execution of 38 ongoing and new projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2021-22) in the current year's fiscal budget, as it seeks to revive the institution.