KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Friday called upon the federal government to abolish the deep-sea fishing licensing policy 2018, which it said was in violation of the Constitution and encroachment on the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of fishermen of the province.

A resolution to this effect was moved by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Saleem Baloch and Liaquat Askani and was passed with a majority vote.

The opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan supported the resolution, but the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Grand Democratic Alliance opposed it.

While the MQM-P backs the PPP resolution against the 2018 policy, the PTI and GDA oppose it

The resolution reads: “This house resolves and recommends to the government of Sindh to approach the federal government to withdraw and abolish its Deep Sea Fishing Licensing Policy 2018, as it is a violation of the Constitution following the [passage of the] 18th Amendment.”

It further said that the fishing policy was an encroachment on the livelihood of estimated 1.6 million poor fishermen of Sindh and Balochistan and “an open disregard to the assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that more than 72 per cent of the fish stock in coastal areas of Pakistan has already declined”.

Foreign companies using lethal nets

Mr Baloch said Islamabad had issued licences for deep-sea fishing to numerous foreign companies, including Chinese and Korean, which were using lethal nets and hunting even fish seeds during trawling. “By doing this they are actually decimating fish species from our sea at the cost of our fishermen who are suffering a great deal.”

He said the licensing policy adopted by the federal government had caused grave negative impacts on the fishermen of Sindh. “I appeal to those who [talk of a] new Pakistan that they should not deprive the livelihood of the fishermen of the old Pakistan.”

Fisheries Minister Bari Pitafi said the federal government had passed an act in 1975 which defined zoning of the sea, according to which Sindh was authorised to take care of the area up to 12 nautical miles; from there to 20 nautical miles was termed the buffer zone while from that point up to 200 nautical miles was handed to the federal government.

He said the federal government had issued licences to various companies in the past decades, which caused grave impact to overall fishing for local population.

Referring to a 2016 survey carried out by the FAO that more than 70pc of fish stock across the coastline of Pakistan had depleted, he said the foreign companies involved in the business would even scoop up the seeds as the survey revealed.

The fisheries minister said after devolution of the fisheries sector following the 18th Amendment, the authority to issue trawling licences should rest with the Sindh government.

He added that the past PML-N government had drafted and got passed the 2018 law in April without taking the Sindh government into confidence.

Mr Pitafi said the 2018 law had been designed on the outlines of the 1975 Act, which reiterated the Zone-3 (from 20 to 200 nautical miles) would be controlled by the federal government.

Fresh policy through legislation sought

He said the PTI, which was in the opposition then, had also opposed the law, which he said was designed only to harm the people of Sindh.

He said a number of marine species were on the verge of extinction while some species had completely vanished.

The minister appealed to the PTI government to review the existing licensing policy and rectify it through fresh legislation.

He said the waters where the federal government had its claim and control were constitutionally in the jurisdiction of Sindh.

Giving an alternative solution, the Sindh minister said both the Sindh and the federal governments should jointly issue such licences and for that local fishing community should be given preference.

He said it would be hugely difficult to revive the depleted fish stock as it took five decades for a country like Canada to restore its declined marine life.

He also demanded that the fishermen of Sindh should not be stopped from fishing in Balochistan.

PTI’s Khurram Sher Zaman opposed the resolution saying how the entire territorial waters could be given to the Sindh government.

He said Sindh had its jurisdiction in the sea up to 20 nautical miles and then began the jurisdiction of Islamabad.

“The 18th Amendment does not say that the entire sea on the Sindh coastline belongs to Sindh,” he said, asking the mover to change wording of the resolution.

Issue would be resolved in CCI

MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain said it was a good resolution. However, he said the 18th Amendment was passed in 2010 and such “violations” of the landmark legislation continued for the past eight years. He asked why the issue was not raised in the meetings of the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

He demanded that the Sindh government write a letter to the federal government asking it to call an urgent meeting of the CCI to discuss the issue.

“We have passed scores of resolutions in the past, which helped us a little. This issue would be resolved in the CCI meetings.”

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani put the resolution before the house, which passed it by majority.

The members of the PTI and the GDA opposed the resolution.

Calling-attention notices

Replying to a calling-attention notice by PTI’s Shaharyar Mahar, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that more than four armed men were arrested in Ghotki and weapons and ammunition were recovered from them.

He said Punjab’s Chhotoo gang was involved in crimes in the district bordering Sindh, but the situation had improved.

Mr Mahar had said his party’s activists had been arrested and kidnapped from the district.

Malik Shahzad spoke over water shortages in Baldia Town, which had made life miserable for the area people.

Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said the situation would improve after completion of some ongoing schemes in the area. He said West district was hooked to the Hub Dam which was completely dried up at present.

Waseem Qureshi spoke over a similar problem in North Karachi and said that riots over water supply were making the situation graver.

Minister Ghani requested the opposition benches to help the government in improving such facilities in the province.

Later, Mr Qureshi withdrew his adjournment motion regarding a better ambulance service in Sindh after the LG minister assured him that the government was already working on the issue.

The scheduled debate on water shortages in parts of Sindh was deferred till Thursday as the assembly secretariat received similar motions from other members of the house.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2018