KARACHI, Feb 27: The Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) on Friday launched two welfare projects in Khadda (Lyari), which houses the city's oldest fishermen settlement. An impressive ceremony was held to mark the event which was attended by a large number of fishermen.

Provincial Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Sardar Manzoor Ali Khan Panhwar, who is also chairman of the FCS, laid the foundation stone of a maternity home and a computer centre.

Speaking at the function, the minister said that he had fulfilled the pledge he had made to the fishermen of Khadda area during his first visit to the area. The FCS, he added, would establish health care and education centres in all the localities of fishermen lacking such facilities.

The minister said he would soon be visiting Shams Pir, Baba Bhit, Mororo and Ibrahim Haideri in connection with the setting up of health care units there. He recounted various steps taken by his department for the welfare of fishermen, and said that the government was also considering a package for the community.

In this regard, he said, contacts were being maintained with the federal and provincial authorities. He hoped that the efforts would materialized and prove beneficial to the community.

Earlier, Mr Abuzar Mariwara, Vice-chairman of the FCS spoke to the audience and claimed that corruption in the Society had been controlled to a great extent.

He pointed out that for the first time in the history of the FCS, a large number of people from the fishermen community had been provided jobs in order to help ease the financial burden of the poor families.

He said that the FCS Board had taken a landmark decision granting the fishermen right to vote to elect members of the Board of Directors. The initiative, he added, would have a far-reaching impact.

FCS directors Haji Abdul Rauf and Ghulam Ali, in their speeches, urged the community not to be misled by the negative propaganda of vested interests who wanted to create a rift among them in order to achieve their own goals.

The ceremony was organized by Karachi's oldest fishermen association, Anjuman Karachian Fishermen, Khadda, which was registered first in 1712 and then in 1905. At the outset of the ceremony, office-bearers of the Anjuman presented traditional gifts of Sindhi caps and Ajraks to the minister.

SECURITY FORCE: Talking to newsmen after the ceremony, Sardar Panhwar said the Society would soon establish a security force to implement the ban on destructive nets for fishing. For this purpose, he said, the government was actively considering necessary legislation. The minister said that the government would not allow private jetties to operate independently without paying any revenue. He said: "we will regularize such jetties in accordance with the relevant laws."