PM orders emergency steps to make train travel safe

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Railways to take emergency steps to make train travel safe and reliable, and assured the government's full support for the reforms he wants in Pakistan Railways.

The directive was issued at a meeting in Islamabad with Federal Minister for Railways Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. According to APP, the two held detailed discussions on the ministry's administrative, financial and reform matters, and the prime minister restated the government's commitment to transparency, reforms and public relief in the railways sector.

Abbasi briefed the prime minister on the overall performance of Pakistan Railways and the progress of its ongoing development projects. The meeting also reviewed measures to improve freight services and to provide modern facilities to passengers, APP reported.

Neither APP nor Daily Times, which carried its own account of the same meeting, reported what the emergency steps would involve, whether any new funding had been approved, or what deadline the ministry had been given. No accident statistics, safety audit, route or specific project was named in either report.

Daily Times reported that the prime minister described public relief, reforms and transparency as among the government's top priorities, and said he assured the minister of full support for what it called transformative reforms and for revitalising the railways.

The prime minister's Wednesday engagements were not limited to the railways. Daily Times reported that, in a separate meeting, he ordered urgent reforms in the federal capital's government schools covering infrastructure, curriculum and teacher training, and told Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal to resolve the institutions' problems within a week. That meeting was told 278 government buses operate across Islamabad for students, and officials presented a survey of schools' infrastructure and curriculum ordered in September 2026.

The same report said Shehbaz Sharif directed the Ministry of Housing and Works to ensure residential projects are completed on time and to maintain quality standards, at a meeting with Housing Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada. APP's dispatch did not cover either of those meetings.

APP is the state news agency and its report of the railways meeting gave no indication of when the ministry would report back on the prime minister's directions.