Karachi:
The fishermen community has strongly criticized and contrary to the formation of fishing policy at national level, saying that fishing is clearly a provincial subject, therefore only provinces can formulate any policy on the fishing sector.
In a speech with the Express Pakinomist, President of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Mustafa Mirani said they have learned through the media that the authorities of the federal government are engaged in formulating a fishing policy at national level. He said the fishing community is the main stakeholders in the fishing sector, but they are not consulted until they prepare this policy. “We will not accept any policy made against our interests,” he warned.
It is relevant to mention that the federal government has circulated a draft of ‘National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy 2025-35’ with provincial governments, including Sindh and Balochistan. Provincial Secretary for Fisheries and Pets, Sindh, Kazim Hussain Jatoi confirmed this and informed Express Pakinomist that the Sindh government was still preparing its feedback for the proposed policy.
According to the proposed policy, the federal government creates an Apex advice, namely ‘Pakistan Fishing and Aquaculture Council (PFAC), which includes relevant stakeholders from the center and the provinces. It will suggest changes to fisheries policy and the legislation to solve questions in federal-province context of fishing and aquaculture management.
In this draft, the governments of Sindh and Balochistan are advised to record and regulate all the existing informal unauthorized private threats and landing sites through specific law, rules and guidelines. “Annual tax, rent and fee are charged on all such pieces and landing sites for the structure erected inside the sea (from high watermark),” it said.
According to the draft, the Mercantile Marine Department detects each vessel except grocery and cargo ships intended to operate in the country’s waters. “Governments in the coastal provinces of Sindh and Balochistan are advised to supplement their efforts to establish a land level integrated and coherent ‘central digital register’ for seabound fishing vessels and port crafts of MMD for the federal government that must have developed system events for registration processing at provincial level,” it said.
According to the draft, the federal government, in consultation with provincial governments in Sindh and Balochistan, must rationalize ‘EN-License System’ together with ‘Distribution Distance Mechanism’ for co-management of catch fishing in all fishing zones in seawater in Pakistan, including certification for Nakhuda and herd.
It has also been proposed in the draft that there will be three months ban on fishing from June to August instead of existing two months, at sea and in freshwater resources. According to the proposed policy, the federal and provincial governments must develop and implement dedicated rules to reform or describe the role and governance mechanism regarding social organizational setups such as fishing cooperation society.
