20000316

Fishing dispute

between Sindh, B'stan

to end by April: Soomro

KARACHI: Sindh Fisheries Minister Iftikhar Soomro said on Wednesday that the fishing dispute between Sindh and Balochistan will be solved by April this year.

He was addressing the fishermen at the distribution of compensation cheques to the 12 families of fishermen, who died last year when their boat Al-Lahoti capsized in deep sea while fishing.

The cheques worth Rs 100,000 each were presented by a general insurance company EFU under an insurance scheme introduced by the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS).

The minister said he had a meeting with the Balochistan authorities last week and will again hold another meeting after Eid to resolve the matter.

"Inshallah, the matter will be resolved by the month of April", he observed.

Regarding the problem of illegal fishing by foreign trawlers within 35 miles, Soomro said this a serious difficulty facing local fishermen and the provincial government was taking up this matter with the federal government.

"These trawlers sweep away entire seafood from our sea and deprive local fishermen of catch and deny revenues to the national exchequer", the minister said.

He urged the local fishermen to procure large fishing vessels or modern trawlers to increase their catch as well as country's export.

Expressing disappointment over the waste of precious seafood products due to obsolete methods of catch handling, the minister said out of 750 tonnes of catch, only 10 percent is exported.

He suggested that 90 percent of the total catch should be exported instead of 10 percent.

Quoting the example of Bangladesh which exports seafood worth $800 million yearly, the minister said Pakistan's exports stood at only $120 million.

He said the Sindh government has requested the federal government to handover the Korangi Fish Harbour to the provincial government for its effective and efficient operations.

Earlier, FCS Chairman Commodore Syed Tayyab Naqvi in his address said so far 13,000 fishermen have been covered under the insurance scheme which will provide insurance to all fishermen.

He said the society has earned a record Rs 48.462 million during eight months and added that the society has spent Rs 7 million on the welfare of fishermen in last 10 months.

He said a boat modification programme had been initiated while 2,500 turtle excluder devices (TEDs) were installed in 1,776 fishing boats.

He hoped that the seafood export would touch $160 million during this year, up by $40 million compared to last year.ÑAPP