Kamal asks Sindh government to ease fishermen’s plight

Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal has demanded of the Sindh government to take back the powers assigned to the Maritime Security Agency to alleviate the plight of two million families associated with the fishing sector.

“The Sindh government has handed over the process of identification of fishermen, including the checking of fishing permits, nets and life jackets, to the Maritime Security Agency,” he said while talking to a delegation of fishermen led by Vice-Chairman Fishermen Corporative Society Haji Ali Kachhi at the party’s secretariat on Thursday.

The delegation included fishermen leaders from various coastal areas, including Baba Bhatt Island, Salehabad and Manora. “On the one hand, it is affecting the reputation of the Maritime Security Agency, and on the other hand it has created rifts between millions of poor fishing families and the security agency,” Kamal said.

He said the multimillion-dollar foreign exchange fishing industry had suffered irreparable damage because of the PPP’s “worst administration”. “Despite the ban on fishing in the months of June and July, trawlers of influential people of Sindh fish in the sea on a large scale,” said Kamal. “Two million poor fishermen's boats and nets are getting seized. There is a danger of a rift between the millions of fishermen and the maritime security due to the failure of the Sindh government to consult stakeholders and to formulate a strategy in this regard.”

Kamal said a consensus-based strategy must be worked out. He said the PSP would not leave millions of fishing families alone and would become the voice of oppressed fishermen at every forum.

The problem of fishermen was not only a matter of employment and economy of millions of people, but it was also a matter of national security which must be resolved on an urgent basis by acknowledging all the legitimate demands of the fishermen.

In the wake of the imposition of a ban on fishing in June-July, the Sindh government should give a two-month stipend to fishermen to save millions of families from starvation and poverty, he said. Central Vice Chairman Hafeez-ud-Din, Member National Council and President District Keamari Usman Humayun Rajput were also present on the occasion.