Islamabad (HRNW) The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on Thursday conditionally allowed the Pakistan Railways to lease its land for public use.
This was directed by a division bench of the apex court comprising three judges led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, heard the case.
During the hearing, Pakistan Railways submitted its business plan to lease land spread over 169,000 acres across the country.
CJP Bandial remarked that state institutions are not meant to engage in businesses in the traditional sense.
He quoted PIA, Steel Mills and other institutions examples.
In 2019, the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) had banned the leasing of railways land for more than five years.
In 2021, SC had imposed a complete ban on leasing in the railway land case in Karachi.
The federal government had filed a revision against the lease ban order.
However, on Thursday, the court allowed conditional permission to the Railways to lease its land.
The conditions include not changing the status of the railways land without due legislation from the parliament or approval from the cabinet.
Additional Attorney General Aamir Rehman told the court that the Railways owns more than 169,000 acres of land.
He said 126,000 acres of land is used for operational purposes while 16,742 acres of land was reserved for future planning.
He said around 9,985 acres of Railways land has been encroached upon while 10,750 acres of railway land is currently under lease.
The additional attorney general added around 6,000 acres of railway land is not in any use.
At this, SC Banidal remarked that railways should grow plants on the barren land.
The government representative said after the Supreme Court’s order to ban leases, Railway’s income dropped.