A fishy tale

The Fishermen’s Cooperative Society (FCS) in Karachi was a little known organisation to the public before the Rangers raid on June 17 on FCS offices to arrest three of its top brass over charges of funding Lyari’s crime syndicates. The raid, accompanied by one on the Sindh Building Control Authority, provoked outrage from Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and appears to have shaken the foundations of the PPP in Sindh. Rent-seeking through occupying lucrative positions in government-controlled organisations has been a norm in our political system. The story tends to be the same. Political party leadership appoints a close aide to a lucrative position; the money made is shared between all involved. While this has become an acceptable part of our politics, the alarming claim in the Rangers raid is that the same money is being used to fund Karachi’s gang wars. While the claims are yet to be proven in a court of law, a report in this newspaper has detailed how the FCS became a lucrative position to hold, the intrigues that went on to control it, and how the Rangers’ raid has left the organisation’s workers in a perilous condition.
After three top officials in the FCS, including its acting chairman, were put behind bars, the organisation has found itself unable to pay its employees as well as the fisherfolk community. The trouble in the FCS is supposed to have started when Dr Nisar Morai was appointed chairman based on close relations with a PPP leader in January. Dr Morai is supposed to have occupied the office via force and turned the FCS into an extortion ring. The fact that Morai fled the country four months ago is indicative of the level of corruption prevalent in the organisation. Law-enforcement officials claim that the FCS was working with a network of criminals to extort traders and was sending money to foreign-based gang leaders through an alternate remittance system. The FCS was set up in 1945 in the Khadda area in Lyari and aimed at importing fishing inputs such as nets and nylon threads. When the Karachi Fish Harbour was established, the FCS was made responsible for managing the harbour. FCS agents would charge 6.25 percent commission from the catch and provide facilities to fisherfolk to sell it. Political interference in the FCS is said to have increased since the 1990s since the income of the organisation had increased manifold. After the Rangers raid, no one appears to willing to take up the position of chairman or vice chairman of the society. The FCS is now being run by a three-member committee formed by the fisherfolk. Based in Lyari, it is yet to become clear if the FCS itself approached Lyari gangs, or was the organisation being extorted by gangs? Resolving this question should be key to solving the mystery behind how a fairly tame government authority became tangled in Karachi’s gang wars.