June 25, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1429

KARACHI, June 24: The Sindh government has shown keen interest in taking over the Korangi Fish Harbour to operate it efficiently, it was learnt here on Tuesday.

There are two harbours in Karachi — one is the Karachi Fish Harbour being operated and managed by the Sindh government and the other is the Korangi Fish Harbour (KoFH) being managed by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock. The KoFH is rather a new facility built to take pressure off the KFH to take care of the boom in fisheries production and for the use of larger trawlers and processing vessels.

Fishery sources have always shown dissatisfaction with the working of the KoFH and have demanded handing over of the Korangi Fish Harbour to the provincial government to make it more operational.

Provincial Minister for Fisheries Zahid Ali Bhurgari has said that he will meet the federal minister for food, agriculture and livestock in the first week of July to seek his support for handing over of the KoFH to the Sindh Government for its optimum utilization.

Mr Bhurgari said he would also urge the federal minister not to allow foreign deep-sea trawlers to operate in the Pakistani territorial waters and cancel their licences.

Seasonal ban

On the demand of the fishermen’s community, the minister also put a one-month ban on fishing, instead of the usual two months (June-July), which would be enforced in July only.

The minister who was talking to representatives of the fishermen community here also announced the government ‘s decision to cancel the licensing and contract system in the fishing zone of the interior of Sindh keeping in view the larger interest of the poor fishermen.

He stated that two mini fish harbours — one at Ibrahim Hyderi and the other at Mubarak village in Karachi —would be built for which funds had been allocated in the budget. Besides, a mini fish harbour at Keti Bundar would also be built.

After the budget session, the Sindh fisheries department would organise seminars to educate fishermen on tuna fish catching, through which a substantial foreign exchange could be earned for the country.