Parts of this, especially about the decrepitness of the railway system and the corruption rings true for Indian railways too. Incidentally, Declan Walsh was recently thrown out of Pakistan for attempting to cover the elections.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/world/asia/pakistans-railroads-sum-up-nations-woes.html?pagewanted=all After Decades of Neglect, Pakistan Rusts in Its Tracks In a Journey on a Crumbling Railway, a Picture of a Nation’s Troubles RUK, Pakistan — Resplendent in his gleaming white uniform and peaked cap, jacket buttons tugging his plump girth, the stationmaster stood at the platform, waiting for a train that would never come. “Cutbacks,” Nisar Ahmed Abro said with a resigned shrug. [...]
