Railways Minister Azam Khan Swati has maintained that that only Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker had the authority to summon the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for inquiry on any allegation according to the rules, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Addressing a news conference at Pakistan Railways Headquarters in Lahore on Saturday, the parliament’s standing committee has no right to call any officer.

To a question about the summon orders for the NAB chairman by the National Assembly Standing Committee, Swati said the committee had no right to call any officer, adding that the standing committee could only request the Senate chairman or National Assembly speaker to summon any officer in the committee.

To another query, the minister said he had taken over the charge of Railways on the orders of Prime Minister Imran Khan and he (Swati) would serve the department till the completion of the PTI government’s tenure on the basis of performance.

He said he would lay focus on the freight business and it would be increased from Rs19 million to Rs36 million per annum within a short span of time. He said the PR was now on track and in the period of nine months to one year, the results of the work and policies would be visible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDhG9arNXT0

Swati said the railways would progress with the efforts of the present honest officers and workers, however, experts would be hired to run the department on a business model basis.

He said running of schools and hospitals was not business of the railways, adding all those departments in railways which were not giving profit would be outsourced. He said he would not spend a penny of the railways on himself, even he would pay the fare from his own pocket.

The minister said railways and postal services were the institutions that were made for business in 1947 but, unfortunately, these institutions had been converted into charity organizations by the previous governments. “Since 1947, the total deficit of the railways is Rs1.2 trillion,” he added.

He thanked NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal for his special interest in the corruption cases of railways and informed that the outcome of pending cases would be from seven to ten days.