Naseem Rao, GS RWU says Pakistan railways can’t be fixed with new tracks alone without fixing workers’ rights

As govt pushes $2.5bn ML-1 overhaul, workers’ union warns of acute staff shortage, three-year pension delays and colonial-era ban on trade union activity

KARACHI: At 5 a.m. at Cantt Station, a 58-year-old driver still signs the logbook with ink, checks a 40-year-old engine with a torch, and drives 500 passengers to Lahore — knowing his pension case has been pending for two years. “We are keeping the wheels moving, but who will keep us moving?” asks the trade union.

With 7,791 km of track, 625 locomotives and over 54,000 employees, Pakistan Railways is the country’s largest transport employer. Yet it carries less than 5% of freight, owes billions in pensions, and according to its trade unions, is on the verge of being “privatized in parts and forgotten as a whole.”

According to a recent study, Pakistan Railways has 466 locomotives and 16,159 freight wagons, out of which 23% of locomotives and 24% of wagons are unserviceable.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has identified six policy reforms to strengthen the railway system in Pakistan. The reforms include investing in staff expertise to analyse railway performance and introducing enterprise resource planning systems to help adopt more commercial approaches that would increase productivity and profitability.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also stressed the modernisation of Pakistan Railways’ infrastructure, saying it will be instrumental in establishing the country as a regional trade and logistics hub. He directed swift upgradation of Pakistan Railways to make it a more effective and revenue-generating mode of transport.

But with a deteriorating workforce, how will such upgradation make any difference?

To understand the real reasons behind the decay of Pakistan Railways and the plight of its employees, I met Muhammad Naseem Rao, General Secretary of the Railway Workers Union (RWU) — a registered union founded by veteran trade unionist Comrade Mirza Ibrahim and currently chaired by Manzoor Ahmed Razi. Rao, who was elected as Global Vice-Chairman of the Railway Section of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) — representing over 18 million transport workers worldwide — at its 2025 conference in Morocco, is a credible voice against privatization.

Muhammad Naseem Rao is the elected Central General Secretary of Pakistan’s oldest and second-largest industry-wise union, Railway Workers’ Union (Open Lines). He holds master’s degrees in Economics and Law and started his political activities from the platform of his student union. He was awarded the Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim Yaadgari Award (2009) by the World Labour Organisation (WLO) London.

While RWU has 17,000 registered members, it effectively represents over 35,000 railway workers across the country and has been raising workers’ issues on major forums, including the Senate.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance.”

At the outset of the meeting, I was surprised to find that the Central General Secretary of such a large trade union does not even have a proper office. Rao explained that this is because trade union activity has been under a ban — the last referendum for the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) was held in 1983, and in the same year, a ban was imposed under the M.O.D. Letter (Ministry of Defence Letter).

“We have been fighting for democracy and democratic rights for the last 40 years,” he said with a glimpse of despair.

Rao added that even democratic governments have not favoured workers’ right to elect their own CBA. “Only in 2008, the PPP government announced lifting the ban on railway and student unions, but it never saw the light of day,” he noted.

The M.O.D. Letter ban was later challenged in the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC). Its full bench nullified the ban, declaring it a violation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, of which Pakistan is a signatory. “However, it seems the higher management is still reluctant to hold a referendum,” he asserted.

Highlighting the major issues plaguing Pakistan Railways, Rao said the lack of maintenance of aging infrastructure due to non-supply of spare parts and an acute shortage of staff are the two biggest challenges.

He dismissed the perception that the number of locomotives has increased. “On the contrary, in the last ten years, the number has actually decreased. All the new major train services that have been introduced are running on the same old locomotives, just refurbished,” he explained.

Rao pointed to an acute shortage of technical staff as a structural crisis. He said the railways has stopped regular recruitments and is relying solely on daily-wage workers. “Unlike permanent employees, daily wagers are not sent to the Walton Training Academy, they have no apprenticeship, no senior-junior attachment, and no job security to learn from mistakes. Railways is a technical department where skills are transferred over years — from engine fitting to track inspection — you can’t learn it in a 15-day engagement. This ad-hoc workforce is now handling sensitive operations, which directly compromises safety and results in frequent accidents and delays,” he argued.

Challenging the recent claims of Minister for Railways Hanif Abbasi that Pakistan Railways is in profit, Rao said, “If the railways is in profit, why has the ministry withheld pensions of its loyal employees for the last three years? Pensioners are being treated like beggars, running from one desk to another, fighting for their rightful dues.”

“If the railways was truly in profit, why has the ministry ignored our residential colonies that are in a dilapidated condition? Ninety percent of the housing is on the verge of collapse due to non-maintenance by the department,” he added.

Pointing to the department’s criminal negligence on safety, Rao said the department is legally bound to provide safety gear under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Convention of the ILO, to which Pakistan is a signatory. Under the convention, every worker must be provided with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

“Our gangmen working on tracks in 45-degree heat, our fitters working under locomotives, our welders and carriage staff — none of them are given basic protection. No safety helmets, no steel-toe boots, no high-visibility jackets, no protective gloves, no safety goggles, no ear defenders, no fall-arrest harnesses for those working on roofs, and not even first-aid kits or clean drinking water at worksites,” he said.

Projecting the situation five years from now, Rao said both Pakistan Railways and its workers would be in a far worse condition. “Most of the trained and experienced permanent staff will have retired by then, and the railways will be left with only contractual and daily-wage employees who will not be as experienced due to lack of on-the-job training (OJT),” he said.

He warned that this would create a double crisis: “On one side, the railways will lose its institutional memory and technical expertise, and on the other, contractual workers do not even have the right to form a union, so there will be no collective voice left to raise safety or operational concerns.”

Highlighting the urgent need for reforms, Rao said, “Our neighbours have significantly modernized and invested in their 150-year-old railway infrastructure. We, on the other hand, have failed to upgrade our own colonial-era system.”

“The workforce has been deliberately reduced from 95,000 to just 54,000, while incidents, derailments and delays have increased manifold over the years. But privatization is not the solution.”

“Transport is the backbone of any economy. No government in the world can afford to hand over this strategic asset to the private sector. You need political will, not a sale deed,” he stressed.

Official Version Awaited: To seek the official point of view on the issues raised by Mr. Naseem Rao, Divisional Superintendent Karachi Mr. Jamshaid Alam was approached multiple times via calls and text messages. He did not respond.

On visiting his office, this correspondent was denied access, and no Public Relations Officer (PRO) was available to respond either.

It seems we have not only inherited a colonial-built railway system, but also the inbuilt imperial attitude of our public service officers. This non-responsive attitude towards genuine public interest queries highlights the lack of accountability and transparency in the department.

Meet the author:

The writer is a senior journalist and columnist covering crime, law, social issues, governance, energy, health, literature, and women and children’s rights across Pakistan’s leading English media houses.

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