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.”


Pakistan’s defense minister reports ‘death threat’ to British police, received during subway ride

Updated 22 min 30 sec ago
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Pakistan’s defense minister reports ‘death threat’ to British police, received during subway ride

  • Individuals who heckled Khawaja Asif recorded a video, warning he could be stabbed with a knife
  • Pakistani ministers have also complained of harassment by Imran Khan’s followers in the past

ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has lodged a report with the British police over the alleged death threat and abuses hurled at him during a train ride in London, the Pakistan High Commission in the United Kingdom said on Thursday.
A viral video surfaced on social media a day earlier, showing an unidentified man hurling abuses at the Pakistani minister in the native Punjabi language, saying, “Take him away before someone stabs him with a knife.”
While Asif chose to ignore the incident and got off the next stop, he visited the Pakistan High Commission on Thursday to formally report the “death threat” to the UK police and demanding an investigation.
“Khawaja Muhammad Asif lodged a report of the train incident with the local police at the Pakistan High Commission,” said a statement released by the Pakistani diplomatic facility. “He informed the police about the details of the knife threat and harassment incident on the train.”
The incident that took place on the Elizabeth Line is now being investigated by the London Transport police, it added.
“I am on a private visit to London,” Asif was quoted as saying. “I was going to Reading via the Elizabeth Line with a loved one.”
He added that a family of three to four persons “harassed and threatened to kill with a knife and used abusive language” against him while making the video.
“I do not know anyone involved in the incident,” the Pakistan High Commission quoted him as saying. “London Transport Police should use CCTV footage to track down the suspects.”
Asif further said death threats and harassment were a “source of shame” for 1.7 million Pakistanis residing in the UK apart from British citizens.
This is not the first time Pakistani ministers belonging to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz party, have been heckled or harassed in the UK.
In the past, Pakistan Information Minister Ataullah Tarar and Punjab Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb have endured the same treatment allegedly by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party supporters of jailed former PM Imran Khan.
 


Seven killed in Pakistan’s northwest as militant’s car bomb explodes accidentally

Updated 14 November 2024
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Seven killed in Pakistan’s northwest as militant’s car bomb explodes accidentally

  • The explosion took place in Mir Ali where a militant was fitting a bomb in a car at his residence
  • Blast damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, with some in critical condition

PESHAWAR: A powerful car bomb accidentally detonated at the house of a Pakistani Taliban militant in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least two children and five suspected militants, police said.
The explosion took place before dawn in the city of Mir Ali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when a man identified a local commander of the militants, Rasool Jan, was fitting a bomb in a car at his house, police official Irfan Khan said.
He said other militants from the Pakistani Taliban group quickly arrived at the scene and removed the bodies of the insurgents who died. Authorities later found the bodies of two children in the rubble of the house, which collapsed in the explosion.
The blast also badly damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, including women. Some of the injured were in critical condition in a hospital, Khan said, but he did not provide details.
The Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in the region often target security forces with assault rifles, rockets, grenades and suicide car bombings, and Khan said it appeared the car bomb was being prepared for such an attack.
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.
Also Thursday, security forces raided a hideout of insurgents in Harnai, a district in restive southwestern Balochistan province, triggering an intense shootout in which a soldier and three insurgents were killed. During the operation, an army major was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle, the military said in a statement.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to whom they called the “martyred soldiers” in separate statements. They said the fight against terrorism will continue until the elimination of all insurgents.
 


Pakistan, Russia call for regional collaboration on Afghanistan amid shared security concerns

Updated 14 November 2024
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Pakistan, Russia call for regional collaboration on Afghanistan amid shared security concerns

  • The call comes as Moscow’s special representative for Afghanistan visits Pakistan for a day
  • Despite security issues, Afghanistan’s neighboring states view its stability as vital for progress

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia on Thursday called for greater collaboration among regional states to address the situation in Afghanistan, amid shared concerns over militant violence emanating from the war-torn country.
The call came during a visit by Moscow’s special representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Zamir Kabulov, who met with Pakistan’s foreign secretary, Amna Baloch, and held detailed discussions with the additional secretary, Ahmad Naseem Warraich, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
“The two sides exchanged views on relations with Afghanistan and called for enhanced coordination among regional countries for a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan,” the foreign office said. “The two sides agreed to remain engaged toward this end.”
The talks come as both nations grapple with security threats linked to Afghanistan. Russia has voiced alarm over Daesh and its attacks, including a concert bombing in Moscow earlier this year that was linked to militants with ties to Afghanistan.
While the Afghan Taliban and Daesh are sworn enemies, Pakistan accuses the Afghan administration of facilitating the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a proscribed militant network blamed for cross-border attacks, an allegation Kabul denies.
Pakistan’s approach to Afghanistan has grown increasingly confrontational since last year as it pressures Kabul to rein in the TTP. By contrast, Russia announced last month it would remove the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations, signaling a step toward normalizing ties with Afghanistan’s rulers.
Beyond security, Russia is keen to retain its influence in Central Asia and engage in Afghanistan’s economic reconstruction, particularly in energy and infrastructure projects.
Initiatives such as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Afghan Railway remain key priorities for Moscow, though persistent security challenges have delayed progress.
For Pakistan also, Afghanistan is critical for regional connectivity. Islamabad has offered landlocked Central Asian nations access to its ports, aiming to facilitate trade with global markets via sea routes.
Despite security concerns shared by Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, its stability is viewed as vital to unlocking the economic potential of regional projects.
 


PM Sharif urges nation to perform rain prayers as toxic smog chokes Pakistani cities

Updated 14 November 2024
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PM Sharif urges nation to perform rain prayers as toxic smog chokes Pakistani cities

  • Shehbaz Sharif urges Islamic scholars to play their role in organizing ‘Istisqa’ prayers across the country
  • Toxic smog has enveloped Pakistan’s cultural capital, Lahore, and 17 other districts of Punjab province

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the nation to perform prayers for rainfall, calling on Islamic scholars to take the lead in organizing “Istisqa” prayers, his office announced on Thursday, as worsening air quality continues to endanger the health of millions.
The Istisqa prayer is a special Islamic ritual performed to seek rain, primarily during times of drought or severe water shortages. It symbolizes the community’s humility, repentance and reliance on divine mercy for sustenance.
Toxic smog has enveloped Pakistan’s cultural capital, Lahore, and 17 other districts in Punjab since last month. Health officials report that more than 40,000 people have sought treatment for respiratory illnesses, prompting Punjab authorities to close schools until November 17 to safeguard children’s health.
“PM Sharif appeals to the nation to offer Istisqa prayers for rain,” his office announced in a statement. “Scholars should especially play their role in organizing Istisqa prayers.”
The prime minister noted the rainfall would improve the environment apart from aiding in getting rid of diseases.
“Istisqa prayers should be organized in all mosques under the auspices of the federal government and the provinces,” he was quoted as saying. “In the current situation, there is a dire need for rain.”
A day earlier, Pakistan’s Meteorological Department forecast light rains from Nov. 14-16 in most districts of the country’s populous Punjab province.
The UN children’s agency has warned that the health of 11 million children in Punjab is in danger due to air pollution.
South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan, gets shrouded in intense pollution every winter as cold air traps emissions, dust, and smoke from farm fires.
Pollution could cut more than five years from people’s life expectancy in the region, according to a University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute study last year.
 


Pakistan signs four-year pact with Global Green Growth Initiative to boost climate resilience

Updated 14 November 2024
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Pakistan signs four-year pact with Global Green Growth Initiative to boost climate resilience

  • The agreement will help Pakistan’s transition to a green economy, address water scarcity and deforestation
  • Pakistan has ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, with its cities engulfed in smog

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has signed a four-year country program framework agreement with an international green economy organization to advance its sustainable development goals by enhancing climate resilience through green growth initiatives, according to an official statement released on Thursday.
The agreement was signed by Pakistan’s Climate Change Ministry Secretary, Aisha Humera Moriani, and the Global Green Growth Initiative’s (GGGI) Deputy Director-General, Helena McLeod, during a formal ceremony at the United Nations-led Global Climate Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Pakistan ranks as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, catastrophic floods claimed over 1,700 lives, affected more than 33 million people, and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion.
While international donors pledged over $9 billion last January to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods, officials report that little of the pledged amount has been disbursed so far.
“The Ministry of Climate Change & Environmental Coordination and GGGI has signed a four-year Country Programme Framework agreement to advance Pakistan’s sustainable development goals through targeted climate action and green growth interventions,” said the official statement.
On the occasion, McLeod said her organization aimed to facilitate Pakistan’s transition to a green economy through collaboration with national stakeholders to address water scarcity, deforestation and energy challenges “compounded by climate change effects.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Coordinator on Climate Change Romina Khurshid Alam thanked the GGGI for engaging with Pakistan to “mobilize green finance, support climate action frameworks and promote investment” to achieve climate resilience.
Pakistan also regularly faces other climate change-induced effects such as droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves.
Currently, record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures and stay-at-home orders in the eastern city of Lahore and other cities in the populous Punjab province, which has been enveloped in thick, toxic smog since last month.
A mix of low-grade fuel emissions from factories and vehicles, exacerbated by agricultural stubble burning, blanket Lahore and its surroundings each winter, trapped by cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds.
The city of 14 million people stuffed with factories on the border with India regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, but it has hit record levels this month, as has New Delhi.