Schism in Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum as leaders accuse founder’s son of hijacking organisation

The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), a prominent fishing community rights body, has been facing a schism over the leadership issue after the death of its founder and chairman, Muhammad Ali Shah, in August.

On Saturday, PFF office-bearers, founding members and activists from various coastal neighbourhoods attended a meeting in Ibrahim Hyderi to discuss the leadership crisis in the organisation and condemned the move of Mehran Shah, son of the late Muhammad Ali, to appoint himself as the organisation’s new chairperson.

The meeting was headed by PFF Karachi chief Majeed Motani and attended by central secretary general Saeed Baloch, senior vice-chairperson Fatima Majeed, senior leaders Talib Kutchi, Ayub Shaan, Omid Bakhsh, Hussain Dorai, Ghulam Dorai, Akhtar Sheikh, Khuda Ganj Shad and others.

The participants of the meeting said that Mehran had changed the names of the PFF office-bearers in an illegal and fraudulent manner without elections and made himself the chairperson. They demanded of the Joint Stock Companies Sindh the registrar to immediately cancel the fake list of the PFF office-bearers and certificate issued to Mehran.

The participants stated that the PFF was an organisation of the fishing community and it would last forever, and its members would not allow anyone to hijack it. Talking to The News, Baloch said the meeting had decided to send a letter to the Joint Stock Companies Sindh to inform it that Mehran had submitted a fake list of the office-bearers and hence, the body should immediately cancel the fake list and certificate issued to Mehran.

“We also demanded that the concerned authorities remove the illegal occupation from the PFF’s office and assets,” Baloch said. He added that the fishing community leaders in the meeting had also agreed to challenge in court the issuance of the fake certificate to the PFF on the basis of fraudulent elections.

Mehran Shah, on the other hand, refuted the allegations and said that the office-bearers of the PFF’s 11 districts, who are the part of the organisation’s governing body, had attended a meeting on December 13 in Hyderabad who passed a resolution to appoint new office-bearers and expel those who had been harming the organisation.

“Since 2014, there have been no elections held in the organisation and the government bodies, including the Economic Affairs Division, need the list of new office-bearers after elections after every two years,” he said.

Mehran explained that according to the by-laws, the organisation’s governing body had announced the new office-bearers, in which he was made the chairperson, Yasmeen Shah the senior vice-chairperson and Ramzan Malah the secretary-general.

Muhammad Ali had along with other fishing community leaders formed the PFF in 1998 and he served as its chairperson till his demise. Because of his lifelong struggle for the fishermen, he was also made the chairman of the Asia region of the World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP), a global forum for the small-scale fishermen.

The late Muhammad Ali called for justice when it came to the fishermen imprisoned in Pakistani and Indian jails, construction of dams on the Indus River, abolition of the contracting system on lakes and construction of illegal jetties.

Recently, he led a campaign against the federal government’s announcement of constructing cities on the twin islands of Bundal and Dingi.