Pak Railways promote 500 ticket examiners

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The General Manager Pakistan Railways, Junaid Qureshi, has promoted over 500 Special Ticket Examiners, Special Ticket Examiner Group Inspectors and Divisional Inspectors to the next grade.

He signed the summary of promotion of the Railways employees on March 1 and the notification in this regard was also issued later in the day, sending a wave of delight among the staff. 

As per notification the Grade 11 Special Ticket Examiners have been promoted to Grade 14, Grade 12 Special Ticket Examiners Group Inspectors to Grade 15 and Grade 14 Divisional Inspectors to Grade 16. 

It may be mentioned here that a Special Ticket Examiner Mohammed Suleman had moved to court a couple of years ago seeking promotions which was allowed by the court with the order for carrying out the required promotions. 

However, the implementation of the court order was delayed because of ongoing financial crisis in the railway which led to protests and strike by railway employees. 

Meanwhile the leaders of Railway’s Special Ticket Examiners Group Association, Shahabuddin Lakho, Haji Naimuddin Abbasi, Abdul Majeed Abbasi, Syed Asif Ali Shah and Al-haj Liaquat Ali Khilji have expressed their gratitude to the GM Railway, Junaid Qureshi, and other senior railway officials for issuance of notification of their promotions having described the issuance of notification the victory of righteousness.

Blair suggests study for education pattern suiting Pakistan

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suggested that a study be conducted to evaluate the type of education that would be effectively suited for Pakistan and an urgent action be taken to implement it.

He made the suggestion in a meeting with Arif Ali Shah Bukhari, Chancellor of KASBIT and Chairman of KASB Foundation, on the sidelines of the recently held YPO-WPO Global Leadership Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Arif Bukhari, who attended the conference as Member MENA Regional Board of YPO-WPO, revealed that in the meeting with Tony Blair the geo-Political issues of Pakistan also came under discussion and he explained to the former British Prime Minister that there was great potential for improvement and modernization in Pakistan for which the way forward was through the prioritized provision of education to its masses through which the evils of illiteracy and violence would gradually be overcome. 

The former British Prime Minister agreed with the viewpoints of the KASBIT Chancellor having remarked there was also an urgent need to develop direct people to people contact for which finding of right partners between Pakistan and Britain was must to achieve real and sustainable growth. 

He also stated that the world’s growth and prosperity had always come through the private sector and that the government’s work was to give the right policies and to create conducive environments for educational growth. 

Tony Blair also informed Arif Bukhari that the British High Commission was trying its best to implement several programs that would directly benefit the people of Pakistan for which he look forward to the support of Pakistani business community to play a positive role for the realization of these programs.

Shahid Aziz Siddiqi leads State Life turnaround

Shahid Aziz Siddiqui

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Shahid Aziz Siddiqi has lived up to his huge reputation by leading the turnaround of the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLIC) in a matter of five years. The corporation, under his dynamic leadership, has registered impressive growth in this period as reflected in the statistics shared with the media recently.

Having help important governmental posts, after topping CSS exams, Shahid Aziz Siddiqi has not only revived the SLIC during his tenure as its Chairman but he has succeeded in taking it to new level. 

“State Life is one of the few government-owned companies that are actually profitable,” he remarked while disclosing that the annual profits that the Corporation remitted to the government in 2012 were Rs750 million. 

Instead of just comparing the yearly figures with those of the preceding year, the SLIC Chairman summed up the five-year performance which highlighted the company’s growth since 2008. State Life had remitted Rs296.22 million to the government in 2008, which showed that its payouts to the government increased at an average rate of 26.1% annually between 2008 and 2012.

State Life’s investment portfolio in 2012 consisted of Rs289.9 billion after being Rs275.1 billion in 2011. Its investment income also increased from Rs18.7 billion in 2008 to 35.8 billion in 2012, showing an annual rise of 17.6%. 

The equity portion in the investment portfolio remained Rs28.8 billion in 2012, which generated an income of Rs4.7 billion for the company. 

State Life’s total income, which included premiums as well investment income, increased to Rs89.7 billion in 2012, which was 18% higher than the total income of Rs75.7 billion in 2011. 

The total income of State Life was Rs 41.8 billion five years ago, which represented an annual increase of 21% between 2008 and 2012 while the average inflation during the same period remained 14.3%. 

State Life paid its policyholders Rs 24.3 billion in 2012 in claims as opposed to Rs12.8 billion that its policyholders received in 2008. The most recent year-on-year increase in total claims paid by State Life was 25%, as it paid Rs19.49 billion in claims during 2011.

Similarly, individual life first-year premiums in 2008 were Rs4.9 billion which, after increasing at an annualised rate of 29.4%, reached Rs13.9 billion in 2012. The year-on-year increase in individual life first-year premiums during 2012 was 16%, up from Rs12 billion in 2011. 

The individual life renewal premiums in 2008 were Rs13.4 billion rose to Rs30.6 billion in 2012, reflecting an annual growth rate of 22.8% between 2008 and 2012. The year-on-year increase in individual life renewal premiums in 2012 was 13%, up from Rs28.2 billion in 2011. 

The network of 155,000 State Life agents selling different insurance products nationwide played the pivotal role as they increased the number of total policies that are in force to 4.25 million in 2012 from 2.57 million in 2008 with the number of new policyholders in 2012 alone being 752,448. 

The most significant increase was witnessed in group life premium income, as it increased from Rs3.8 billion in 2008 to Rs8 billion in 2012, showing an annual rise of 20%. After the year-on-year increase of 69% in 2012, the company’s group life premium income rose to Rs8 billion, up from Rs4.7 billion in 2011. The number of lives covered under State Life’s group life insurance also increased from 3.8 million in 2008 to 7.8 million in 2012.

Pak Railway Karachi Division show improvement in train operations

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The punctuality of train operation from Karachi has achieved considerable improvement during the last 2-3 months with almost all the trains except one or two running on time.

“The couple of trains which are facing late departures for about half an hour to two hours is because of certain unavoidable reasons,” Anzer Ismail Rizvi, Divisional Superintendent, Pakistan Railways Karachi Division, disclosed in an interview on January 6.

He revealed that the punctuality improvement has been achieved due to strict monitoring of train operation and motivation which resulted in improved maintenance of locomotives, coaches, signaling system as well track in the Division.

He stated that notwithstanding the ongoing financial crunch, the Railways Divisional authorities did this within their own resources. He pointed out that 57.5 Km of speed restrictions have now been normalized without spending any money thus resulting in running of trains with normal speed.

The Divisional Superintendent maintained that although the Railway Division has allotted 102 locomotives, it was operating 42 locomotives. However, their maintenance has been improved bringing normalcy in the train operation.

It also resulted in operating on an average two freight trains daily from Karachi. He informed that the Railway Division earned 346 million rupees in excess during the last six months of the current financial year as compared to the same period of last financial year.

Anzer Ismail spoke about what he called a significant achievement and said that after a gap of 20 months with effect from January 12013, the Sukkur Express was now running with full composition after attachment of  one Air-condition Sleeper and two Lower AC coaches which were withdrawn from service in May 2011 due to non-availability of power plant. He said these plants have now been made available after a lot of efforts and follow-up.

He said AC Sleeper Coach has a seating capacity of 16 while Lower AC coaches have a capacity of 76 each and will greatly facilitate the passengers intending to travel to Sukkur and Jacobabad.

As regards the future plans, DS Karachi Railways informed that efforts are being made to re-introduce Mehran Express which was a popular mode of journey from Karachi to Mirpurkhas and was closed due to non-availability of locomotives.

Anzar Rizvi informed that railway track from Karachi to Kotri has been rehabilitated while that of Down track was in progress which has brought improvement in speed and running time.

According to him the track rehabilitation from Hyderabad to Mirpurkhas was also in progress and will be completed in about six months which will reduce running time between the two destinations bringing it down from 90 to 60 minutes.