A train driver in Pakistan was suspended after he stopped the train to buy yoghurt. A report in AFP says that the halt was unscheduled and it raised concerns around railway safety in Pakistan. A video of the driver’s assistant collecting the snack from a street stall before climbing back into the carriage has been circulating on social media. In the video, one can see a man, holding what looks like a packet of yoghurt, get into the engine before the train glides away. A voice in the video is heard saying: “Look at this railway driver. He has stopped the train to buy yoghurt." The Pakistan government took action immediately.
“When you stop a train in the middle (of the tracks) it becomes a safety issue. Safety is our priority. We cannot tolerate anything which compromises safety," Syed Ijaz-ul-Hassan Shah, a spokesman for the railway ministry, told AFP.
Watch the video here:
The passenger service had started its journey in the eastern city of Lahore and was moving south towards Karachi. In a statement the country’s minister of railways, Azam Khan Swati, warned that he will not “allow anyone to use national assets for personal use". A railway official admitted to AFP that such incidents are not uncommon in Pakistan, and that oversight is often lacking.
While the matter was taken up seriously by the minister, netizens found the incident rather amusing. The comments section below the video is full of ‘laughing’ emojis.
Earlier this year, more than 60 people were killed in Pakistan when a train hurtling through farmland smashed into the carriages of another service that had derailed minutes earlier. According to AP, Aijaz Ahmed, the driver of the Sir Syed Express, told the station that on seeing the derailed train, he tried his best to avoid the crash by braking but failed. Railway officials said Ahmed was slightly injured, and villagers pulled him from the train’s engine after the crash.
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