ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Railways (PR) is facing 2,954 court cases and has paid over Rs25 million to its lawyers in five years.

The cases pertain to service matters, land and property, recovery of dues, and civil and miscellaneous matters.

The PR claims to have engaged a total of 98 lawyers. Its Lahore headquarters and workshop division have engaged 26 lawyers, Peshawar 19, Rawalpindi and Islamabad division 12, Multan 19, Sukkur 12, Karachi six, and Quetta four.

The PR had to pay Rs5.62 million to its lawyers in 2005, Rs4.633 million in 2006, Rs6.21 million in 2007, Rs7.8 million in 2008 and Rs2.14 million in 2009.

The organisation has a foreign debt of Rs20.7 billion and its overdraft has climbed up to Rs35 billion. Only recently, the government gave it an emergency relief package of Rs10 billion.

According to documents available with Dawn, PR’s counsel are handling 24 cases in the Supreme Court, 121 in high courts and customs and sales tax courts, and 1,032 in the federal service tribunal, labour and Payment of Wages Act courts.

Peshawar division has 273 cases, including 127 pertaining to service matters and 146 to land and property issues.

Rawalpindi division is facing 418 cases, including 90 on service matters, 107 on land and property, 37 on quarter issues, 57 on recovery matters, 14 on commercial matters, 92 on civil issues and three on miscellaneous issues.

Lahore division has 216 cases, including 144 pertaining to service matters, 43 to land and property, 25 to quarter issues and four to commercial matters.

Railway workshop is facing 90 cases, including 41 on service matters, 35 on land and property, 10 on quarter issues, two on recovery and two on miscellaneous issues.

Multan division has 255 cases, including 171 pertaining to land and property, 14 to quarter issues, seven to recovery, 13 to commercial issues and 50 to civil matters.

Sukkur division has 127 cases, including 45 on service matters, 45 on land and property, four on quarter issues, two on recovery, 10 on commercial issues, two on civil matters and four on miscellaneous matters.

Karachi division has 310 cases, including 147 on service matters, 117 on land and property, 17 on quarter issues, and 29 on commercial matters.

Quetta division has 26 cases, including two on service matters, three on land and property, 16 on recovery and 5 on miscellaneous matters.
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