KARACHI, July 28: Director General Ports and Shipping Capt. Anwar Shah has said that there is no legislation to control the activities of foreign shipping lines, which allegedly resort to frequent freight hikes and other charges. Giving his presentation during the inaugural session of the silver jubilee celebrations of the Association of Shippers’ Councils of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (ASCOBIPS) here on Thursday, he said that the Ministry of Ports and Shipping had no legislation to control these foreign shipping lines, which normally get themselves registered with the Customs House.

The DG ports further said that there were a number of problems confronting exporters and importers with regard to shipping companies their agents and freight forwarders, including that of ‘House Bill of Lading,’ and need to be addressed to protect country’s external trade. Despite the fact that there was no legislation to control the activities and decision of foreign shipping companies yet the government would like to help private sector on these issues because the country’s exports could not be allowed to suffer.

For resolving the issue of ‘House Bill of Lading,’ he said it was necessary to bring in amendments in the law so that exporters were not blackmailed at the hands of foreign buyers after losing the title of their export consignments. However, he also drew the attention of the participants that such problems did exist in developing countries because there were no mature and tested systems were available as were in advanced countries.

Referring to the Shipping Protocol between Pakistan and India, Capt Anwar said that certain amendments were suggested to make the protocol effective and in line with the current situation but it was put into the cold storage by the foreign ministries of both the countries.

“Presently the protocol restricts each other’s flag vessels in freely calling and loading cargoes. Ships can only load bilateral cargoes. Third country cargo is not allowed unless prior permission is taken”, he added. He disclosed that he and his counterpart in India agreed on certain changes but it seemed there was no place for shipping industry in the ongoing Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) between the two countries. The DG said that all the regional countries should have close cooperation in all the fields of trade and industry if they wanted to attain a dignified position in a fast changing global economic scenario. Mr Shah says India pays around $5 billion towards freight to foreign shipping companies which carry around 50 per cent of its cargo, whereas in Pakistan the national carrier is catering to the needs of haulage of POL though extremely weak in dry and container cargo.

He suggested to the Indians to use Karachi Port which could be cost-effective particularly for cargo meant for western side of India like Ahmedabad as land route could be used to take such cargo across the border.