Museum documents 150-year history of Pakistan Railways, rumbling through modern times

A visitor photographs an 1826 steam locomotive Rx 207 on display at Pakistan Railways Heritage Point in Golra Sharif railway station on the outskirts of Islamabad on March 6, 2024. (AN Photo)
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Updated 15 March 2024
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Museum documents 150-year history of Pakistan Railways, rumbling through modern times

  • Pakistan Railway Museum, located at Islamabad’s Golra Railway Station, has two galleries and large collection of artifacts
  • Museum is home to steam locomotives, royal saloons associated with Lord Mountbatten, Jinnah, Maharaja of Jodhpur

ISLAMABAD: On a pleasant spring afternoon earlier this month, passengers stood waiting as the Karachi-bound Awam Express blared a horn to announce its arrival at the elegant Golra Railway Station in the suburbs of Pakistan’s federal capital, Islamabad.

Besides around a dozen trains that stop at the small, neatly-kept junction daily, it is also home to the Pakistan Railway Museum, whose grey sand stone walls hold inside them the 150-year-old history of the national, state-owned railway company of Pakistan.

The museum has two galleries, 18 locomotives and coaches, and a saloon which was once used by India’s last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, and Pakistan’s founder and first governor general, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The huge collection of artifacts detailing the history of railways in the Indian subcontinent includes a kerosene heater belonging to Mountbatten, vintage railway police guns, a punching machine for tickets, signal sticks and lamps, flags, drinking vessels, and a morse code machine.

Other items in the collection include surgical instruments used at the railways hospital, relief bogies as well as bells, kerosene lamps and a Neal’s ball token machine, captured from the Khemkaran station during the India-Pakistan war of 1965. A long pendulum by Gillet & Johnston Croydon, London, 1899, is another treasured item.

“The royal saloon of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is one of the finest and one of the best saloons in our collection,” Noman Fazal, the museum’s curator, told Arab News.




An 1826 steam locomotive Rx 207 on display at Pakistan Railways Heritage Point in Golra Sharif railway station on the outskirts of Islamabad on March 6, 2024. (AN Photo)

The museum also has steam locomotives belonging to foreign governments, including Canada and India. Another saloon at the museum was gifted by the Maharaja of the Indian State of Jodhpur to his daughter on her wedding.

“We have one saloon which [is] specifically associated with Maharani [princess] of Jodhpur,” Fazal said. “According to the railways’ record, it was gifted by Maharaja Jaswant II.

“Jodhpur was a princely state in India, so at that time the Maharaja gifted a wedding ceremony gift to his daughter, a whole saloon, JR-5.”

“HISTORY OF ENTIRE RAILWAY SYSTEM”

In the heyday of Pakistan’s railway raj, trains were a popular mode of travel used by the wealthy and working classes alike, with liveried bearers carrying trays of tea, and pressed linen sheets and showers in the first-class carriages of some services like the famed Khyber Mail.

Today, the services have little of that old-world charm. Indeed, for decades now, Pakistan’s rail service has been plagued by scandal and mismanagement, though it still remains a popular mode of transport and vital link connecting the country’s cities and towns. Most of the infrastructure is colonial-era, built under British rule before it was handed over to Pakistan at independence in 1947.

Founded in 1861 as the North Western State Railway and headquartered in Lahore, Pakistan Railways owns 7,789 kilometers of operational track across the country, stretching from Peshawar to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger services and covering 505 operational stations.

The Golra Railway Station was built in 1881 and named after the nearby village of Golra, famous for the shrine of a renowned saint, religious scholar and poet, Pir Mehar Ali Shah. The Pakistan Railways ministry established the museum at the station in 2003.




A passenger train arrives at Golra Sharif railway station on the outskirts of Islamabad on March 6, 2024. (AN Photo)

Several officers, most prominently Divisional Superintendent Ashfaq Khattak, worked tirelessly to put together the collection, rummaging for months and months through railway storerooms to collect artifacts of historic significance, according to the 35-year-old curator.

Fazal, who was appointed curator on a contractual basis in 2016, helped establish the second gallery in April 2018 and continues to sort artifacts to date with two assistants. While railway stations in Pakistan’s northwestern Attock Khurd town and the southwestern city of Quetta have collections of some historic rolling stock, the museum at Golra is the only formal railway museum in the South Asian country, Fazal added.

The first gallery of the museum is housed in a building built in 1881 when the British first constructed the station.

“If you see in Gallery I, we have one Neal’s ball token machine, it’s a war victory,” the curator said, referring to an electro-mechanical instrument provided at stations on single line railway sections, ensuring safety in train operations by dispensing tokens, which were handed over to train drivers as authority to enter a block section.

The ball was a “permission bell,” which a station master would give to a train driver, signaling that he could take the train forward on a particular railway track, Fazal explained.

“Without that ball, no train can proceed on the railway track,” he said. “So, this is an important thing for viewers and visitors.”

In the second gallery, established in 2018, a section is dedicated to the railways engineering department and showcases how the railway and its many bridges and tunnels were built.




Visitors arrive at Pakistan Railways Heritage Point in Golra Sharif railway station on the outskirts of Islamabad on March 6, 2024. (AN Photo)

Another section focuses on the subcontinent’s partition in 1947 and shows refugees migrating to Pakistan from India, the curator said.

Waheed Mehmood, a 38-year-old gallery assistant, said the museum remained open from 9am to 4pm throughout the week and an individual ticket cost Rs50 ($0.18).

“My job is that whichever people come, foreigners, staff from embassies, students from Pakistani colleges and universities, we brief them about every single thing at the museum,” Mehmood said.

“We have worked very hard here, if you see in the gallery, it shows the entire railway system, when it started.”

Nur Adiana, a professor of finance visiting Islamabad with a group of tourists from Malaysia, said she had loved visiting the museum for its rich history.

“In Islamabad, this is the first tourist site that we visited,” Adiana told Arab News.

“When I read [about] all those things, when they explained about, you know, all those bells that they use and all the locomotives, I love it because those are antiques for me.”

Inta Norisah, a visa consultant who was part of the tourist group, said she had learnt about the museum from a tour agency and visiting it had been a “good experience.”

“The government [has] preserved the place so well,” Norisah said. “It is a good experience for me to see things [from the times] before your [Pakistan] independence until now and all the things that they used for the trains.”


Explosion in house kills 2 children in former stronghold of Pakistani Taliban

Updated 14 November 2024
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Explosion in house kills 2 children in former stronghold of Pakistani Taliban

  • Police investigating what caused the blast including whether someone was handling explosives to make bombs
  • Blast happened in Mir Ali where Pakistani Taliban often target security forces with suicide bombings 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A powerful explosion ripped through a house in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban on Thursday, killing at least two children and wounding some others, police said.

Police were still investigating what caused the blast including whether someone was handling explosives to make bombs, local police chief Irfan Khan said.

The blast happened in Mir Ali, a city in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan and where Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents often target security forces with suicide bombings and other violence.

Elsewhere in the province Thursday, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle set off an explosive device prematurely on a deserted road in Charsadda district, killing himself but harming no one else, police said.

Local police official Masood Khan said the intended target was unclear and bomb disposal experts and police were still investigating whether the man was wearing the explosives or they were attached to his motorcycle.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, are separate from the Afghan Taliban but have been emboldened by the group’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.


‘Media speculation,’ foreign office says on Beijing wanting own security staff in Pakistan

Updated 14 November 2024
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‘Media speculation,’ foreign office says on Beijing wanting own security staff in Pakistan

  • Reuters reported this week Beijing and Islamabad in talks to set up a joint security management system
  • Beijing has been angered by recent attacks on Chinese nationals, has publicly raised security concerns 

ISLAMABAD: The foreign office on Thursday rejected as “media speculation” reports by a foreign news agency that Beijing is pushing Pakistan to allow its own security staff to provide protection to thousands of Chinese citizens working in the South Asian nation.

Reuters, citing five Pakistani security and government sources speaking on condition of anonymity, reported this week that a string of recent attacks on Chinese nationals had angered Beijing and pushed Pakistan to begin formal negotiations for a joint security management system. 

Last month’s airport bombing in the southern port city that killed two Chinese engineers returning to work on a project after a holiday in Thailand was the latest attack on Beijing’s interests in Pakistan.

“Let’s not get carried away with speculation,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly news briefing in Islamabad when questioned about the Reuters report. 

“I would not like to respond to media speculations that are based on unreliable sources and motivated by an agenda to create confusion about the nature of Pakistan-China relationship.”

She added that Pakistan had raised a security force to protect Chinese nationals and projects, particularly those operating under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) umbrella, and “this security apparatus continues to provide security to Chinese CPEC projects inside Pakistan.”

Longtime Pakistan ally China has thousands of nationals working on projects grouped under the CPEC, a $65-billion investment in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to expand China’s global reach by road, rail and sea.

The Reuters report said there was now a consensus on setting up a joint security management system, and that Pakistan was amenable to Chinese officials sitting in on security meetings and coordination but there was no agreement as yet on their participating in security arrangements on the ground.

One official said Pakistan had asked China for help in improving its intelligence and surveillance capabilities instead of direct involvement.

“We advise the media to ascertain the motivation of individuals who are feeding them this story,” Baloch said. 

“Pakistan and China have a robust dialogue and cooperation on a range of issues including counterterrorism and security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan … We will continue to work with our Chinese brothers for the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects and institutions in Pakistan.”

Baloch said as close allies, Pakistan and China had the resolve and capability to foil “any attempts to harm Pakistan-China relations, including by spreading stories about the nature of this relationship.”


Pakistani deputy PM to attend UAE’s Sir Bani Yas Forum from Nov. 15-17

Updated 14 November 2024
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Pakistani deputy PM to attend UAE’s Sir Bani Yas Forum from Nov. 15-17

  • Three-day summit will host top decision-makers, experts for debates on regional issues
  • Ongoing war in Gaza is expected to feature prominently in discussions at Sir Bani Yas Forum

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar will attend the 15th Sir Bani Yas Forum in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from November 15-17, the foreign office in Islamabad said on Thursday, with the ongoing war in Gaza expected to be at the center of discussions. 

The three-day annual retreat will bring together top decision-makers and experts to debate pressing Middle Eastern issues such as regional peace and security and economic transformation.

“At the invitation of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar will participate in the 15th Sir Bani Yas Forum being held from Nov. 15-17 in the UAE,” foreign office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly news briefing in Islamabad.

“At the forum, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister will engage in high-level dialogue with global leaders and experts addressing critical issues of regional security, economic cooperation and sustainable development.”

Dar will highlight Pakistan’s “strategic perspective on fostering diplomatic solutions to complex regional challenges and advancing collective prosperity,” Baloch added. 

The war in the Gaza Strip is expected to feature prominently in discussions at the Sir Bani Yas Forum. 

Israel invaded the enclave last year after Hamas-led gunmen attacked communities in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and abducting more than 250 as hostages. Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 43,500 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and destroyed much of the enclave’s infrastructure, forcing most of the 2.3 million population to move several times.

The issue was also at the center of the agenda at the recently concluded Joint Arab-Islamic Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia, with Baloch welcoming the resolution adopted by the summit, which, among other issues, called on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Israel and asked it to set up an independent investigation committee to investigate Israeli crimes including genocide, forced disappearances, torture and ethnic cleansing.

Commenting on recently signed investment agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth over $2.8 billion between Pakistani and Saudi companies, the spokesperson said the deals were crucial for “sustaining economic and investment collaboration” between the two close allies. 

“They [MoUs] are a reflection of the enhanced cooperation between our two countries in the economic domain,” Baloch added.

In response to a question about reports that the UAE had implemented a visa ban for Pakistanis, the spokesperson said:

“First, I would like to reiterate that according visa to any individual is the sovereign right and decision of the country concerned and secondly, we do not subscribe to this impression that there is a ban on visa for Pakistani nationals.”

The spokesperson’s comments follow widespread media reports of a decline in visas for Pakistanis by the UAE and a decrease in overall overseas employment for nationals of Pakistan, allegedly due to their lack of respect for local laws and customs and for participating in political activities and sloganeering while abroad.

“If there are any issues that arise with respect to issuance of visas and stay of Pakistani nationals in the UAE,” Baloch said, “that are important agenda items between Pakistan and the UAE and we continue to discuss them.”


Lahore most polluted city on earth, Agra’s toxic smog hides Taj Mahal

Updated 14 November 2024
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Lahore most polluted city on earth, Agra’s toxic smog hides Taj Mahal

  • Smog obscured India’s famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, and Sikhism’s holiest shrine, Golden Temple in Amritsar
  • Delhi flights faced delays, with tracking website Flightradar24 showing 88 percent departures and 54% of arrivals were delayed

NEW DELHI: Toxic smog obscured India’s famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, as well as Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and delayed flights on Thursday, becoming too thick to see through in several places.

The city of Lahore in neighboring Pakistan ranked as the world’s most polluted in winter’s annual scourge across the region, worsened by dust, emissions, and smoke from fires burnt illegally in India’s farming states of Punjab and Haryana.

In the city of Agra, the Taj Mahal was barely visible from the gardens in front of the 17th-century monument, while dense fog wreathed worshippers at the Golden Temple in Punjab, television images showed.

Delhi flights faced delays, with tracking website Flightradar24 showing 88 percent of departures and 54 percent of arrivals were delayed.

Officials blamed high pollution, combined with humidity, becalmed winds and a drop in temperature for the smog, which cut visibility to 300 m (980 ft) at the city’s international airport, which diverted flights in zero visibility on Wednesday.

More patients flocked to hospitals, particularly children.

“There has been a sudden increase in children with allergies, cough and cold ... and a rise in acute asthma attacks,” Sahab Ram, a paediatrician in Punjab’s Fazilka region, told news agency ANI.

Delhi’s minimum temperature fell to 16.1 degrees Celsius (61°F) on Thursday from 17 degrees C (63 degrees F) the previous day, weather officials said.

Its pollution ranked in the ‘severe’ category for the second consecutive day, with a score of 430 on an index of air quality maintained by the top pollution panel that rates a score of zero to 50 as ‘good’.

Pollution in New Delhi is likely to stay in the ‘severe’ category on Friday, the earth sciences ministry said, before improving to ‘very poor’, or an index score of 300 to 400.

The number of farm fires to clear fields in northern India has risen steadily this week to almost 2,300 on Wednesday from 1,200 on Monday, the ministry’s website showed.

Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab, was rated the world’s most polluted city on Thursday, in live rankings kept by Swiss group IQAir. Authorities there have also battled hazardous air this month. 


Pakistan court rules out Imran Khan acquittal in new state gifts case, will frame charges

Updated 14 November 2024
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Pakistan court rules out Imran Khan acquittal in new state gifts case, will frame charges

  • Case involves jewelry worth over €380,000 gifted to ex-first lady by foreign dignitary when Khan was PM from 2018-2022
  • Huband-wife duo is accused of undervaluing the gift and buying it at a lesser price from the state repository

ISLAMABAD: A trial court has dismissed an acquittal petition and will frame charges against jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife in a case relating to gifts acquired from a state repository, the ex-premier’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Thursday.

The reference, popularly called the new Toshakhana case, was filed in July and involves a jewelry set worth over €380,000 gifted to the former first lady by a foreign dignitary when Khan was prime minister from 2018-2022. The couple is accused of undervaluing the gift and buying it at a lesser price from the state repository.

Before the new case was filed, the ex-premier, who has been in jail since last August, was convicted in four cases. Two of the cases have since been suspended, including an original one relating to state gifts, while he was acquitted in the remaining two.

“The trial court has dismissed the acquittal petition of Imran Khan & Bushra Bibi from Toshakhana Case 2. On Nov. 18, the court will frame charges,” the PTI said in a statement to reporters. 

“This case doesn’t merit proceedings as the prosecution admitted that Imran Khan did not gain any personal benefit from the case, neither do the proceedings meet the law.”

Khan’s convictions had ruled the 71-year-old out of the Feb. 8 general elections as convicted felons cannot run for public office under Pakistani law.

Arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician, Khan says the cases against him are “politically motivated” and aimed at keeping him from returning to power. Pakistani authorities deny this.

The ex-premier is also facing multiple cases relating to May 9, 2023 protests, which saw his supporters attack government and military installations over his brief arrest in another graft case.

On Wednesday, the PTI announced that Khan had called a ‘long march’ protest movement to the capital, Islamabad, over alleged rigging in general elections and to call for the release of political prisoners and the independence of the judiciary.

The PTI is demanding that the government rollback recent constitutional amendments like the 26th amendment that it says are an attempt to curtail the independence of the senior judiciary. 

The party is also calling for the release of all political prisoners, including Khan, and a return of “the public mandate” following what it believes was a rigged general election. 

Pakistan’s government denies being unfair in Khan’s treatment and its election commission denies the elections were rigged. The government also says the recent amendments related to the judiciary are meant to smooth out its functioning and tackle a backlog of cases.