05 January 2004	Monday	12 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 4: Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum has urged the Saarcleaders to resolve the issue of detention of fishermen by Pakistan and India for violating each other's territorial waters.

"It is the issue of the livelihood of the fishermen who are in this profession for centuries," the PFF said in a statement. It suggested that the two countries should declare their sea border as common property and resources and allow fishermen to sail freely in the territorial waters.

"The sea is a natural resource and the poor fishermen should be given the right to benefit from it because the community is the real custodian of the resource", the statement added.

Sir Creek, a controversial strait dividing Pakistan-controlled and Indian-controlled territorial waters, is a 38-km-long estuary in the marshes of the Rann of Kutch.

Experts from both sides believe that the Sir Creek dispute could be resolved through negotiations. "Our immediate concern is to save the erroneous fishermen from being lodged in prisons," the PFF stressed, and pointed out that detention of the only breadwinner of a fisherman family brought a lot of miseries to his dependents. These poor families could not afford the hectic efforts involved in getting a detained person released from the custody of alien forces, it stated further.