KARACHI: A long-running shipping wrangle that has left 10 Pakistani seafarers marooned aboard their ship, anchored for the past six months in Egypt’s Suez Canal, may not come to an end any time soon, as the Kuwaiti owners of MV Akkaz are learnt to have been dragging their feet on resolving the issue to avoid further losses.

Sources close to the matter told Dawn that the Pakistani seamen, who were arrested on the plea of the chartering firms, could not leave the ship until the owners arranged and dispatched another 10-member crew to replace the stranded crew under international shipping laws.

The ship, laden with 5,400 metric tonnes of steel products, worth over $4.75 million, had left Abu Dubai on Aug 11, 2016 with consignments for three different parties — half for two Egypt-based parties and as much for a chartering firm in the Netherlands.

The ship, owned by North Star Shipping Company, was first impounded on a plea of the Holland-based charterer, having half of the consignment on board, as the shipping company did not ensure the transportation of the cargo to the destination on time.

Later, the two Egypt-based firms also got the arrest order for the ship due to the breach of contract by the shippers.

While talking on phone on board the ship, anchored some five nautical miles off the shore, Chief Officer Jameel Jangian told Dawn that one of the engines of the ship was out of order when they left Abu Dubai, while the functional one was in a very poor condition as they could sail at the speed of only four nautical miles per hour instead of 12.

“We reached the Suez Canal at this low speed crossing all over the war zone and pirate-infested waters only to learn that the ship was arrested on court’s orders for its failure to deliver the cargo on time.”

The chief officer said the shipping company had not paid dues of around Rs20 million to the workers.

The shipping company did not want to pay the workers their dues, he said, adding that the company recently offered them one-month salary telling them that it would be paid whenever the company decided.

“The shipping company is delaying the replacement of crew to save their money as the monthly pay of 10-member crew was $63,000 and to exhaust us to the point that we leave the ship on the company’s terms and conditions without claiming our dues.”

He said the shipping company had refused to supply food and drinking water to them, besides threatening them of dire consequences.

When contacted, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Cairo, Mushtaq Ali Shah, claimed that the embassy was extending all logistical and consular assistance to the stranded crew. “We are duly ensuring water and food supply to them,” he added.

He said seven of the crew members had already been repatriated at government expense.

The ambassador said the remaining crew members would also be repatriated when they conveyed their desire. But perhaps the crew members were not willing to be repatriated before receiving their pending salaries, he explained.

Four sailors had returned home on Jan 5 and three others on Jan 12 after intervention by diplomatic authorities.

The workers left Karachi on Aug 8 and reached Kuwait via Dubai. They boarded the ship in Kuwait and sailed to Egypt, where they have been stranded since Oct 14.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017