The fifth province

It is heartening to know that the Exclusive Economic Zone, an area extending south up to 200 nautical miles from the coast, has now been increased to 350 nautical miles by the UNCLOS. Within this zone, Pakistan has exclusive rights of fishing and exploration of natural resources. Area-wise, this entire zone is greater than Balochistan and at times has been rightly termed our fifth province.
Whether we have been successful in exploiting natural resources from the area under our control or not is questionable. In fact there has been no worthwhile effort to explore oil and other natural resources to date. Even fish catch by our existing fleet of old trawlers has been rejected many a times by importers, being unfit for human consumption. Not much effort has so far been made for the development of ports along our coastline and fish harbours. We may not be a seafaring nation but nature has gifted us a 900km long coastline to develop and unlimited resources of EEZ to be explored for the benefit of our future generations.
Cdre (r) Sajjad Ali Shah Bokhari
Islamabad