The Sindh Assembly on Friday passed through a majority vote a resolution calling upon the federal government to withdraw and abolish its Deep Sea Fishing Licensing Policy 2018 to safeguard the livelihood of some 1.6 million poor fishermen of Sindh and Balochistan.
The resolution was jointly moved by two MPAs of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Muhammad Saleem Baloch and Liaquat Ali Askani. The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which is the main ruling political party in the Centre, opposed the resolution.
The resolution states: “This house resolves and recommends to the Government of Sindh to approach the Federal Government to withdraw and abolish its Deep Sea Fishing Licensing Policy 2018, which is violation of the Constitution following the 18th Amendment, an encroachment on the livelihood of an estimated 1.6 million poor fishermen of Sindh as well as Balochistan and an open disregard to the assessment by Food and Agriculture Organization that more than 72 per cent of the fish stock of coastal areas of Pakistan has already declined.”
Opposing the resolution, PTI MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman said the provincial government had the domain over the sea area up to 20 nautical miles from the coastline and after that it was the exclusive domain of the federal government to decide policies regarding fishing and maritime affairs.
He said the devolution of the subject of fisheries after the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment did not mean at all that the domain of the federal government in the fishing and maritime sector of the country had ended.
The opposition legislator advised the treasury benches to change the wording of the resolution in view of the domain of the federal government over the maritime affairs and fishing sector. Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Abdul Bari Pitafi said deep sea fishing had been fast causing extinction of up to 70 per cent fish species found in Pakistan’s sea waters.
He said the Sindh government had been consistently demanding a review of the policy since the time of the previous federal government to safeguard the livelihood and economic rights of the fishermen of the province, but to no avail.
He hoped that the PTI’s federal government would extend cooperation to the provincial government in adopting a policy regarding the fisheries sector. He said that the in view of the passage of the 18th amendment, either the Sindh government should be given full authority to adopt a deep sea fishing policy or else the provincial authorities should be fully consulted on devising a policy by the federal government.
The mover of the resolution, MPA Saleem Baloch, said the deep sea fishing policy had been affecting social, economic and livelihood of some 1.6 million fishermen of Sindh and Blaochistan.