25 February 2004	Wednesday	04 Muharram 1425

KARACHI, Jan 24: The Board of Directors of the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) has decided to adopt the method of secret ballots for the election of seven of its members, instead of a show of hands, the method in practice since the establishment of the FCS in 1945.

The rare decision was taken at a meeting of the Board here on Tuesday. Provincial Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Sardar Manzoor Ali Khan Panhwar, who is also chairman of the Society, presided over the meeting.

The meeting was attended by elected and government-nominated directors besides the Managing Director of the Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA), Mohammad Nawaz Baloch.

According to the FCS by-laws, the Board comprises 14 directors out of whom seven are nominated by the provincial government and the rest elected by the fishermen, who are the FCS share-holders, at a general body meeting to be called for this purpose.

The critical session of the Board's meeting, held amid the controversy over fresh recruitments. The dispute was amicably settled as the meeting decided to retain only 280 newly-appointed employees performing security, marketing and sanitary duties.

The meeting also approved the agreement reached between the FCS and KFHA on rent issue with the amendment that no organization would claim any arrears. The decision, which ended the longstanding row between the two organizations, would be implemented during the current fiscal year. As per the decision, the FCS would pay Rs10 million per annum to the KFHA on account of availing port facilities at the harbour for a period of 25 years.

The meeting also decided to introduce a modern base-to-boat communication system to enable fishermen to contact the relevant quarters in case of any emergency.

It is learnt that one of the senior directors the Board, Haji Shafi Mohammad Jamot, staged a walkout during the meeting on jobs issue. However, the meeting continued without any interruption.

Though it was expected that the meeting would be stormy in view of the ongoing campaign run by some of the elected directors against fresh appointments, the proceedings remained peaceful.

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Sardar Panhwar said the meeting was held in a congenial atmosphere and ended on a happy note. He said, "we have taken some landmark decisions which will have a remarkable impact on the future of the fisheries sector."

Briefing newsmen, the Vice-chairman of the Society Abuzar Mariwara told Dawn that the FCS had now been put on democratic path as election for the seven elected directors would in future be held through secret ballot.

Among others present on the occasion were Ghulam Ali, Saleem Deedag, Habibullah Baloch, Abdul Rauf and the Manager Administration, Iqbal Mahar.