Pakistani Railway Mafia

 

(33) Pakistani Railway Mafia

1998 by Fazeel Azeez Chauhan

In order to help facilitate the looting of Indian treasures, the British decided to build decent railways. Of course, it was the Indians who spilled their sweat and blood to do the actual construction. Last month, during a visit to the Pak (sacred) land, I experienced the unholiness of today's Pakistan Railways. My friend Shehky and I had decided to take the round-trip from Lahore to Karachi by train.

We went to Lahore Railway station, on the day of our trip. At the ticket counter, the clerk who probably makes less than 2,000 Rupees ($40) a month, gave us a very bad attitude. He was so rude that I couldn't even get a straight answer from him about the train schedule. It was his negative way of exerting power to get a sense of superiority over the customers. We finally discovered that there were no tickets available. So Shehky took me to a restaurant across the street from the station. There, in black market, we got two tickets for 1300 Rupees each. Of course, the face value of each ticket was only 780 Rupees. Who made the 520 Rupees of profit on each ticket? The Railway Mafia.

This is nothing new, everyone knows about the tickets being sold in black. Usually, a traveler only has to ask a Kulee to purchase a ticket. It seems that railway workers on many levels are part of this mafia ring. From the Kulees on up to the executive management, everyone gets their share of the 520 Rupees profit from each ticket. The biggest proof that they're all in it together, is that you will never be able to buy a counterfeit ticket. That's because the Pakistan Railway Mafia is so powerful, that they've destroyed the competition from any other mafia. The tickets themselves are so simple that anyone could easily print fake ones. But nobody has dared to do so to challenge the Pakistan Railway mafia.
          At the Karachi station, the Railway had displayed large banners announcing that they would not tolerate the black marketing of tickets. "Violators will be jailed and fined" was the main line of the drama. In Karachi, for the trip back to Lahore, the Kulees were asking for 1500 Rupees per ticket. The Railway mafia falsely claimed that it was now too risky to sell tickets in black. They used this trick to hike up the prices even more. We got two tickets which ended up being in a women's compartment. There are six bunk beds for the people in each compartment. The other four people in our compartment happened to included two young women and two young girls. The oldest was about 21 and did not like us being in her vicinity, possibly because of my long hair and Shehky's earrings. Maybe we don't look like two ideal "mama's boys". She contacted the Railway authorities to have us moved, but they were of no help. Later she became a bit friendly and gave a blanket and pillow to my friend who was feeling cold.

In the adjacent compartment was a woman with her two daughters who were visiting from England. Her sister was also there and she was obviously a sincere old timer from a small town in Pakistan. She offered us a large plate of homemade Biryani. On her genuine insistence we accepted and enjoyed the delicious meal. Their younger daughter was about five years old and was playing house on the very top bunk bed, which is about 5 feet above the ground. The poor girl rolled over and had a terrible fall to the ground. But luckily, she was spinning during her fall and thus miraculously didn't have any significant injuries. God does protect his good people.

Guess what happened when we arrived in Lahore from Karachi? My friend Shehky is an artist and has been gradually moving his belongings to his new home in Lahore. He had a suitcase full of metal tools and instruments for wood carving. As soon as we stepped off the train, an officer of the mafia pulled us aside. He told us that each passenger is allowed only 20 Kilograms of baggage. Anything heavier should have been checked in and stored in the baggage compartment. This was a new rule, which very few people knew about. In fact it's another trick for the mafia to make money.

Here's how the Railway mafia rips off people: The officer took us to a weighing machine. The machine indicated that our suitcase weighed 65 Kg. At the top of the machine was a sign that said "Warning - This machine can show inaccurate measurements at any time". But nobody was paying any attention to this sign. We were asked to pay 22 Rupees per Kg, totaling 1430 Rupees. We objected with agony. At that time, a man wearing very nice white clothes appeared on the scene. At first he seemed to be an employee of the railroad, but later turned out to be a taxi driver, who was part of the Railway mafia. Bargaining, diplomacy and arguing back and forth resulted in a bribe of 400 Rupees. This included the taxi fare to our home. The kind gentlemen of the mafia assured us that we would get home safe and sound.

When we arrived home, we had to pay 400 Rupees to the taxi driver. He probably got 100 Rupees as his cut. The other 300 Rupees went to his mafia friends at the Railway station. Though the amount is only $8 for me, but for a person struggling in Pakistan, 400 Rupees is a lot of money. On a daily basis, the Railway mafia is thus robbing hundreds of people. It's just another example of an elaborate "number two" or fraud system created to make money for the authorities. These people have the audacity to call themselves Pak- and Muslims. It's estimated that 90% of Pakistanis don't even pay their electric bills and pay bribes instead. Show a non-Muslim a few common things in Pakistan and he will be convinced to never become a Muslim because we are such bad examples of the faith. If "Cleanliness is Half the Faith" then Americans practice half the teachings of Islam, but Pakistanis don't. Enough Pakistanis are corrupt and not on the straight path of Islam. That's the cause of our suffering and downfall