Expressing apprehension about the construction of the Gwadar East-Bay Expressway, the National Party on Sunday demanded that the government protect the local fishermen’s rights while constructing the road.
They also suggested a change in the design of the road in a way that may provide easy access to the fishermen to continue their employment up to the sea. The NP’s Sindh chapter organised a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on the directives of the party’s newly elected central president and former chief minister, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, to show solidarity with Gwadar’s fishermen.
Muhammad Ramzan Memon, the NP’s Sindh president, led the protest while the party’s other key leaders, Ayub Qureshi, Engr Hameed Baloch, Mirza Maqsood and Majeed Sajidi, were among the speakers.
They said that the construction of the main road on the eastern coast of Gwadar would affect fishing, and that the authorities concerned had not taken steps to remove their apprehension regarding their centuries-old livelihood.
They said the governments across the world keep the protection of the rights of the local inhabitants in their minds while carrying out any development projects, but unfortunately, the rights of the indigenous populations have been violated in Pakistan.
Memon said the government can adopt an alternative plan that can give them access up to the sea. “Fishermen should be provided a passage in the road to go to and return from the sea by building a breakwater structure in the expressway.”
He said the NP is organising protests across the country on the issue. “Fishing is their only source of earning money,” he said, adding that it was their constitutional right to protect their livelihoods.