Independent candidate for the provincial assembly, Usman Ghani, addresses supporters during an election campaign rally in the Arabian sea in Karachi on May 3, 2013. — AFP Photo

KARACHI: Wearing life jackets and bobbing on the gentle waves of the Arabian Sea, supporters of a candidate in Pakistan’s upcoming nationwide election held a waterborne rally to highlight the challenges faced by their embattled fishing community.   

Backers of independent political candidate Haji Usman Ghani took to the water Friday on a flotilla of fishing boats. He is contesting May 11 elections for the Sindh provincial assembly from a constituency near the southern port of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, and many of his prospective voters work in the fishing industry on the nearby coast.

Dozens of boats filled with his supporters left the harbor and went into the Arabian Sea with flags flying. Supporters did not let their cumbersome life jackets get in the way of the festive atmosphere, and danced and chanted slogans to show their support for Ghani. But the candidate had a serious message.

Ghani, who’s been a social activist in the area for years, promised to improve the education system and provide clean drinking water to his constituency if elected. ”Our children don’t get an education. We were forced to use contaminated water…There are no teachers in schools and colleges of the area. That is why I had to come forward and contest elections to get our problems solved. We supported and followed others for long, but no more. We will solve our problems ourselves,” Ghani said.

Many people who took one of the roughly 50 boats taking part in the flotilla complained that the government has done little to help the fishing community. Fishermen are often caught up in a tit-for-tat war on the water with Indian authorities who arrest Pakistanis after they allegedly cross into Indian territory. Pakistan does the same. The fishermen in both countries often languish in jail for months. According to members of the fishing community around 170 Pakistani fishermen are currently being held in India.

”The government has done nothing for the industry and the fishermen,” says Ali Mohammad, a supporter of Ghani. It’s unclear whether Ghani has much of a chance of winning the seat, which is currently held by a member of the Pakistan People’s Party.

Fishing is an important means of livelihood in Karachi.—File Photo

KARACHI: “Rozgaar pe qabza, jazeeray pe sabza na manzoor” was the slogan on everyone’s lips as the narrow winding lanes of Rehri Goth on Wednesday filled with residents coming out of their small homes to protest the leasing of the Dingi and Budal islands in Korangi Creek for development.

“They are stealing our right to a livelihood, which we will not allow them to do. We will keep on protesting till our voices reach the ears that hear us out,” Fatima Shaukat of Ibrahim Hyderi told Dawn.

“People come out of your homes and fight for your rights!” another woman by the same first name and from the same area, Fatima Majid, yelled out to the crowd. “If you build a new city here, it won’t have any room for us poor fisher folk just like we are not allowed to fish near the Marina Club,” she cried. “There is talk of connecting the islands with a bridge. Do you think our boats would be allowed to pass from under it? No. And that will block our passage to the sea,” she said.

“If development means crushing the poor residents of the area and their means to a livelihood, I say to hell with such development and progress,” she screamed.

“They are selling our sea on which our husbands, our sons depend for food. Over our dead bodies!” added Zebu of Rehri Goth.

Meanwhile, Yousuf Kadani, president of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum’s (PFF) Ibrahim Hyderi unit, said that they had experienced something similar in 2006 as well. “Back then it was a UAE-based company that was about to take over our islands. We came out to fight the decision even then and were successful in doing so as the project never materialised but now we hear of this company looking to develop the islands.”

“Brothers and sisters, friends of Rehri Goth, this is war. You have fought and won a war before, too, and you have to fight again
to show that no one can snatch from you what is your right. You have been fishing here in these very waters for years. You are the jageerdaars of the sea. Save your sea from the greedy people who are up to no good,” said PFF Karachi president Majid Motani who also happens to be an old boat captain and community leader from Ibrahim Hyderi.

PFF spokesperson Sami Memon said that they had been writing letters to the company said to be developing the islands. “If you try to learn more about this company, you will find that its owner is a well-known developer and entrepreneur credited with the development of several islands all over the world. They are major investors. Looking at our islands you will notice that they are not that far from each other and a little reclamation of land from the sea could also join the islands to create a long belt,” he pointed out.

The 60,000-strong population of Rehri Goth isstill struggling for basic rights such as schools and hospitals and instead of looking into solving their issues the government thought about ‘developing’ the islands while adding to the indigenous community’s misery, he said.

As you walk through the outer gates, you can’t miss a white board showing the number of prisoners in the District Prison Malir, Karachi, along with their other details. The number of foreigners in the jail stands out. According to the information on the board, District Prison Malir currently houses 469 foreign prisoners of whom 256 have been convicted, 41 are being detained and 170 are under-trial prisoners (UTP). And almost all of them are Indian fishermen.

Somewhere in neighbouring India, there must be similar boards in their prisons or sheets of paper clipped in files showing the number of foreign inmates, many of whom are fishermen from Pakistan.

Sir Creek, a 96km strip disputed territory in the Indian Ocean between Pakistan’s Sindh and India’s Gujarat state is where almost all of these violations occur. Pakistan and India don’t know where to draw the line — literally. The misery suffered by Pakistani and Indian fishermen caught for unknowingly crossing over to the other country while catching fish at sea seems to have no end. In a way their situation can be compared to fish caught in the net, fighting for life and then pulled out of water. They are poor people whose livelihood for generations has depended on fishing. They don’t know any other work and if they get caught for straying into each other’s waters by mistake, they face an infinite time in jail while their families face a life of uncertainty and hunger back home.

For their families there is no news for days or even months after the disappearance of their menfolk, though vanishing with their boat at sea almost always means the same thing — that they have been arrested for straying into alien territory. The boats are confiscated immediately and never returned.

The Indian fishermen arrested for invading Pakistani territory are usually from Gujarat and the Pakistani fishermen caught on the other side are from Sindh, mostly Keti Bunder in Thatta and other coastal villages of Karachi such as Ibrahim Hyderi, Mubarak Village, Rehri Goth, Chashma Goth, Abdullah Goth, Abdul Rahman Goth, Kaka Village, Soomar Goth, Sanghu Goth, the Baba and Bhitt islands, etc. The fishermen on either side have similar stories to tell about how they were arrested. They only realise they are in troubled waters when they find the coastguard boats approaching them, and by then it is too late.

While the Indian fishermen — unless they happen to be children in which case they are kept in the Youthful Offenders’ School adjacent to Karachi Central Prison — are sent to the District Prison Malir where they are kept in new and separate barracks and treated rather well, the Pakistani fishermen are not so fortunate. Most are sent to GIC Kutch Putch, a prison in Gujarat, India.

The children are also sent to regular prisons, kept with criminals and beaten up night and day. Some have even died in prison in India like Ibrahim Mallah of Keti Bunder in 2010 and Nawaz Ali Mohammad of Rehri Goth in 2012. The news about their death also reached here after several days and it took even longer, almost a month, to have their remains brought here.

Whereas the Indian fishermen imprisoned here say they get to eat proper food, those lucky enough to return alive from India, have terrible tales to narrate about their ordeal. “We were fed the thinnest watery curry with worms floating in it but it was either that or starve to death, so we ate,” said little Mir Mohammad of Thatta, soon after the 14-year-old’s return from India after one-and-a-half year. Another recent returnee 16-year-old Asghar Ali says that they were made to sweep and scrub floors in GIC Kutch Putch, a far cry from the Youthful Offenders’ School here where the young prisoners are expected to take lessons and learn some kind of a craft. “The prison staff treated us like total criminals. They yelled and screamed at us day in and day out. ‘You are not here to attend your father’s wedding so you better work to earn your keep,’ is what they’d tell us,” said 18-year-old Abdul Kareem on his return to Pakistan.

Recently, the Pakistan government took very good care of a young Indian fisherman suffering from brain abscess at the time of arrest. He was admitted to Civil Hospital and treated so well there by the doctors and nurses that at the time of his release he said that he wanted to become a doctor. One wonders about the fate of any Pakistani fisherman with any ailment under Indian imprisonment.

“My husband was suffering from a gastric ailment which was so serious that I had on occasions seen him cough up blood. It has been eight months since my husband went missing at sea. I don’t know what’s become of him,” Zahida Begum, wife of Abdur Rehman, a Pakistani fisherman cried.

It is a sad reality that while Indian fishermen prisoners in Pakistani jails are released as soon as they have served their sentence, things aren’t happening the same way for Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails. Some have been stuck there for as long as 13 to 14 years.

Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, who has been fighting for the cause of fishermen for years through his NGO Legal Aid, explained that under the Foreigners Act of 1946, aliens get around seven years in prison.

“But here we intervene to give these poor fishermen some respite. By the time their cases reach court, it has already been around one year, which we have requested to be considered as served time. That is how they are released after nine to 14 months, regularly,” he says. “There is no green or orange line representing Pakistan or India in the sea,” he points out.

It’s a great moment of joy for the Indians when they are being released. They joke with the prison guards and are presented with new clothes and shoes by Legal Aid or any other NGO responsible for arranging transport for them right up to Wagah where they are then handed over to Indian authorities.

Another NGO that also comes to the aid of fishermen is Ansar Burney Trust. The Edhi Trust, meanwhile, is responsible for receiving and transporting Pakistani fishermen on their being handed over to Pakistan authorities by the Indians at Wagah.

The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) and Fishermen’s Cooperative Society (FCS) also look after the well being of both Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails and Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails.

Sometimes, determining a detainee’s nationality can also become an issue and prolong his stay in prison. After exchanging information with the other country’s authorities about the arrests made, there has to be some kind of confirmation that the people really are from the other side. There are many Burmese fishermen families in Ibrahim Hyderi and they don’t even have a National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) CNIC. Likewise, there are several individuals from India whose nationalities have not been conformed by India.

“To deport a person, you need to know what country a person belongs to,” points out Kamal Shah of the PFF. “That’s where NGOs like us come in. “We accept responsibility for the Burmese men, also known as Bengalis here, while urging the Indian government for their early release,” he says.

“Normally we get in touch with the Indian authorities through the Arambagh Police Station, the moment any of the fishing boats go missing here. That’s how we find out if our fishermen have been arrested at sea. Then we inform their families. Those who have no other means of earning also receive food rations from us, which is little consolation for their plight,” he admits.

Iqbal Haider advocate and the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz are no more with us, but they also fought for the fishermen’s cause. Faiz Ahmed Faiz as director of the Fishermen’s Cooperative Society also used his international influence to get detained Pakistani fishermen released from Indian jails. Iqbal Haider went to India to negotiate the release of Pakistani fishermen. At his reference meeting last year, Karamat Ali of Piler, said, “After getting the biggest batch of 450 Indian fishermen released from Pakistan, Iqbal decided to go to India for the release of Pakistani fishermen imprisoned there. Through his sources, he even met Sonia Gandhi. When they agreed to release 25 Pakistani fishermen, he threw a fit saying that he had got 450 Indian fishermen released and was hoping for as big a number to be released from India in return. He said he wouldn’t leave if they didn’t agree. It was only on his insistence and stubbornness that we eventually returned home with some 75 Pakistani fishermen,” he said.

For Fatima, the wait for her son, Nawaz is finally over. Yet it’s not a happy ending.Around 13 years ago, young Nawaz and three of his fishermen uncles got lost in a cyclone at sea, and ended up in the Indian waters. Later, arrested and jailed, they had no means to contact their family which lived in Keti Bunder.

The family — his mother Fatima, sister Husna, wife, and two kids — thought their men had drowned in the storm and eventually gave up on their return. With no source of income and starvation staring them in the face, they migrated to Rerhi Goth, a few miles away from Karachi’s Ibrahim Hyderi, and began life anew. Fatima and Husna make a living out of making mats and selling them, their meagre income supplemented by charity that barely serves them through the month.

“Two years later, out of the blue, we received a letter informing us that my son and others were languishing in a jail in Indian Gujarat,” recalls Fatima, “We were so happy to know that they were alive. We immediately contacted the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, and requested them to help us get our men released. But to this day, we’ve had no success.”

If living without their men for years on end was not difficult enough, tragedy struck again when they got the news last year that Nawaz had died in the jail.

“Now we live in this constant fear that others would meet the same fate,” says Husna, dabbing her eyes with her sari’s pallu every few seconds. “If they can’t come here, then take us to India, so that we can meet them at least,” she pleads.

Letters are the only contact, and for each they have to wait for around two to three months. Husna brings the letters — wrapped in a plastic bag — which speak of little else but home and family, and a longing to be united with them.

While Nawaz’s aged father constantly keeps asking when his men would return, his small kids have no recollection of their father. “His daughter was just one-and-a-half years old, while the son was about a month old,” says Fatima as tears brim over in her eyes. “Nawaz ko tou apni mitti mil gayee, baqiyon ka pata nahi kya hoga (Nawaz found his land, what will happen to others),” she sighs in a resigned manner.

Hasan, who lives in Ibrahim Hyderi, was more fortunate. Caught in the Indian waters last year, he and seven other fellow fishermen were jailed and then released in a few months. Kept in a jail in Jamnagar, they were not allowed contact with their families, who despite being aware of the fate of their men, were helpless. The ‘captain’ of the ship still remains in the Indian authorities’ custody.

Initially, the fishermen had to prepare their own food with ingredients given to them, but later they were served cooked food.
But that wasn’t the bad part. “What was worse was when they would keep badgering us to pump up information of our state secrets. What did we know about all this, we are poor fishermen,” says Hasan indignantly.

The term in jail left a deep impact on the fisherman who refused to take up fishing after his return. He now works at a nearby petrol pump. But even if he had wanted to, Hasan would have had a hard time starting afresh, since the Indian authorities took away all his belongings. Between the seven of them, they had their boat, three mobiles, and around Rs7,000, none of which they ever saw again.

“I’m scared I’d get caught if I venture out,” he confesses, “And when I have kids, I wouldn’t allow them to take up fishing either.”

ndian fishing boats are seen clustered together ahead of an expected cyclone at Kasimedu in Chennai on October 30, 2012. Authorities ordered hundreds of schools to close October 30 and fishermen to remain on land as a tropical storm barrelled towards India’s southern coastal state of Tamil Nadu. -AFP Photo

NEW DELHI: Authorities ordered hundreds of schools to close Tuesday and fishermen to remain on land as a tropical storm barreled towards India’s southern coastal state of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

The storm was centred in the Bay of Bengal, 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of the city of Chennai, with winds of about 55 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department said.

Forecasters warned that the “cyclonic storm” would make landfall early on Wednesday.

“We have declared a holiday in all the schools, colleges, government offices in five districts of Tamil Nadu. Fishermen have been warned not to go out into the sea,” Jayraman, a government administrator who goes by one name, told AFP.

He said the storm was predicted to intensify before hitting the coast near Chennai with wind speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour.

The weather department in its latest warning said a “storm surge” was likely to inundate five coastal districts, having an estimated population of 600,000.

Authorities warned that was a possibility of extensive damage to power and communication lines. They were preparing helicopters and boats to be ready for any emergency.

Ravi Babu, a senior disaster management official in the state, said that besides existing cyclone shelters, schools and community halls had been identified to serve as potential relief camps for evacuees.

Neighbouring Sri Lanka on Tuesday allowed thousands of people who had been evacuated to return to their homes after the storm, which had been expected to hit the island, changed its course and moved towards India.

It is as if the printed image has given what was non-existent an existence.  This is such an irony that what is alive is ignored but a dead, unmoving image has the power to move us. – Text and photos by Vaqar Ahmed

The ill-fated boat had sailed out from Karachi’s Ibrahim Hyderi coastal village.—File Photo

KARACHI: A fishing boat off the shore of Karachi carrying 37 fishermen capsized due to high tides late Sunday night, killing at least 11 on board.

The boat had sailed out from Karachi’s Ibrahim Hyderi coastal village. 15 fishermen were rescued while the bodies of 11 fishermen were retrieved during search.

According to Sindh Minister for Fisheries Zahid Ali Bhurgari, the Maritime Security Agency had managed to recover 11 bodies from the sea so far, while it was searching for the rest of the missing fishermen.

Locals in Ibrahim Hyderi said that the body of a fisherman was caught in a fishing-net and brought to shore. Soon after, a large number of people sailed out in search of the missing fishermen on their own because no help was offered by the Coast Guards or Maritime Security Agency by that time, they claimed.

The boat’s owner, Umer, said the boat had lost its balance due to high tides and capsized soon after it entered the open sea. Since many other boats were sailing in the vicinity, 15 persons were recovered while the others were swept away by the tides, he said.

Policemen escort arrested Indian fishermen at a police station in Karachi in this file photo.    — Photo by AFP/File

Karachi: The Sindh government released on Monday 48 Indian fishermen from Malir district jail Karachi.

The Government of Pakistan had ordered the release of the 48 prisoners out of 80 Indian inmates, as a good will gesture on the eve of the Indian Foreign Ministers visit to Pakistan.

Inspector General (IG) Prisons Mahmood Siddiqui, representatives of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) and Legal Aid organisation were present at the time of release.

“We have released 48 Indian fishermen from Malir jail in Karachi as a goodwill gesture,” deputy inspector-general prisons of southern Sindh province, Nusrat Mangan, told AFP.

He said 32 Indian fishermen were still in Pakistani prisons.

“They will also be released after our authorities receive a clearance from the Indian government,” he said.

Nazeer Husain Shah, superintendent of the jail, said the released prisoners included 10 teenage boys.

The Indians were presented with flowers and gifts, then bussed to Lahore, from where they would cross the Wagah border.

Officials said they expect India would reciprocate the Pakistani gesture by releasing more than 200 Pakistani fishermen languishing in Indian jails.

“We expect our neighbours will show the similar spirit and release the Pakistani prisoners from their jails,” Ayaz Soomro, law minister of the Sindh province said.

Pakistan and India frequently seize each other’s fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective maritime boundaries in the Arabian Sea.

IG Prisons Mahmood Siddiqui told newsmen on this occasion that now there remain only 32 Indian prisoners in Malir jail and soon they also would be released.

Jellyfish that washed ashore on Sandspit beach at Karachi — Photo by Hammad A Abbasi

Previously deemed as waste, the recent surge in international demand for jellyfish has turned the tide of the local fishermen’s luck.

Until recently, fishermen considered jellyfish an obstacle and prayed for its riddance as overabundance of jellyfish can scare other marine life from the area. Any jellyfish that got caught with the regular prey were discarded but the tables turned five to seven years ago when international orders for jellyfish began coming in, which have now reached to a staggering 1,000 metric ton of jellyfish exported annually.

Catching a jellyfish is easier than fishing for other marine creatures as only a small racket-looking  trap is used. Women and children also fish for jellyfish on the shores by hand wearing gloves, without the need for any equipment.

No specialised fishing for jellyfish took place in Pakistan before 2011 but this season saw the formal beginning of specialised jellyfish fishing and small fishing launches are solely focusing on it. Jellyfish are caught so easily and at such a short distance from the shore that fishermen are able to make two trips in a day.

The trend is not just limited to fishermen rather normal civilians are taking on the activity and it is estimated that since the beginning of fishing season this month around a dozen launches had been hired by private citizens.

The price of each jellyfish in the local market is around 60-70 rupees where as the same jellyfish fetches USD 3 to USD 5 in the international market.

According to an estimate, 1500 trawlers fish around 30 tons of jellyfish daily.

When the boat owners found out about the profitable trend in fishing for jellyfish they stopped renting out their vessels altogether and began making the fishing trip themselves.

In general, jellyfish are used primarily for culinary purposes. They are eaten in many countries, specially in China and south east Asia. They are first dried and salted, then eaten later on in different forms after a long preparation process.

According to experts jellyfish have existed on the planet since 650 million years and there are more than 2,000 types of species available.