Last of Pakistan Railway

Time was when the trains of Pakistan actually departed and arrived as scheduled. There were sometimes delays, but short ones. And of course we were also 'before time' as the conductor guard would tell passengers. In such cases the train would not be permitted on the platform and would be stopped at the inner signal. Travellers would alight, take their baggage and walk out of the station.

 

The Third Class compartments may never have been something to get excited about, but the second (non-a/c) and the air conditioned sleeper cars were very good. Time was when the toilets in the Khyber Mail sleeper car had showers! MY favourite fantasy these days is to relive that long lost glory: getting on the south-bound Khyber Mail at Lahore and as the train draws past Jungshahi east of Karachi, getting into the toilet to shave and shower. Ah, what incredible luxury that was and I still feel myself doing it when I think of it hard enough.

And the Tezgam (lovely name) that never, never, never was late. If I was standing beside the track and a train went by, I could tell it was the Tezgam simply from its breathtaking speed. My childhood memories of this train thundering into Lahore station platform 4 where I stood with an older cousin to receive relatives coming down from the northwest, have a steam engine hauling. As it entered the vast corrugated iron roofed platform, the 'woof-chug' of the steam in the flues and smoke stack would suddenly be magnified by the closed space and for my childish mind this was the greatest sound and the most wondrous sight in the whole world.

Then came those ALCO (American Locomotive Company) snub-nosed diesels with their loud ship's horn and barely audible thrum until it was right by you. Great machines that hauled some great trains across a landscape that few countries can boast of outside the subcontinent. The country was young, barely 15 years old, and the hangover of the Raj kept us going - a sort of inertia from past good governance: police were corrupt all right, but they were very circumspect and secretive about asking and receiving bribes; the bureaucracy worked with just a bit of efficiency; folks obeyed traffic rules and were afraid of law enforcers if they committed an offense; there was no street crime other than the famous pickpocket who one only heard of, never actually saw. And in unison, trains ran on time. And there were trains. On any given day no fewer than thirty passenger trains passed through Lahore Junction in every direction. The station was hive of activity.

The country was still intact; there were no cracks. Then came our disastrous involvement in the Afghan War. For purely personal gain the dictator and his cohorts sat in the lap of Western jihadists. These were non-Muslim jihadists of American and Europe fighting the holy war for Islam. The first cracks in the seams of Pakistan began to appear shortly afterwards. The dictator and his railway minister (another general) created National Logistic Cell to ostensible help the railway haul freight but actually to ferry Western arms to Peshawar and into Afghanistan. The railway's freight was stolen all right and with it the once great institution went on its fast journey into the long, dark night. Remember, not even the most efficient railway system can earn revenue by hauling passenger - even stuffed trains - alone. Revenue comes from freight haulage.

Today nothing works. The country blunders from crisis to crisis and the railway only just trundles along like a wheelbarrow without the wheel.

 

Related: Wheels of Empire