KARACHI: As investigations into the Fisheries Cooperative Society (FCS) affairs are under way, all eyes are set on government response to the FCS situation that has developed following the arrests of society’s key officials by the Rangers, it emerged on Thursday.

According to sources, officials of the Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority (KFHA) and the cooperation department with which the FCS is registered, have sent letters to the chief secretary with a request to replace private persons on the 15-member FCS board with government officials.

The absence of officials and appointment of private individuals with criminal record on the FCS board was one of the major ills afflicting the FCS for the past 10 to 12 years, sources said.

“Presently, all the eight government-nominated directors are private individuals who have little knowledge of laws and their implementation. Due to this, the FCS management has been involved in maladministration, mismanagement and misuse of powers and funds of the society,” says a recent letter sent by additional secretary of the cooperation department to the chief secretary.

The letter also refers to the raid conducted by the Rangers on the residence of FCS vice chairman.

Five FCS officials are presently in the Rangers’ custody, three of them are directors.

In order to improve society’s affairs and bring financial discipline at the FCS, the letter suggests that the present eight government-nominated directors of the FCS might be replaced with government functionaries, such as fisheries and livestock secretary, law secretary, Karachi commissioner, registrar of cooperatives and KFHA managing director.

The KFHA top official, sources said, had forwarded similar recommendations to the chief secretary in a separate letter.

“The continued appointment of political persons on the board for the past many years has weakened the KFHA writ on the harbour. They have no regard for the authority and we can’t implement our decisions,” said KFHA managing director Mohammad Ramzan Awan while speaking to Dawn.

Under the existing composition of FCS, matters had gone to such a low level at the harbour that certain areas like the fish auction hall had become a no-go area for the KFHA staff, he added.

“The situation improved a lot now after the Rangers made some arrests,” he said in reply to a question.

About the issues between the FCS and the KFHA, he said more than Rs190 million of the KFHA had been pending against the society on account of water, electricity, rent and harbour pair charges.

The society, he said, had been violating all the agreements that it had with KFHA.

“The main job of the FCS is to work for fishermen’s welfare while ours is to register bonafide fishermen, look after the harbour channel and manage the harbour. Both have to work in coordination,” he said.

Financial corruption in the FCS, in his opinion, had its roots in the commission process permitted by the government.

“The commission the FCS receives from fishermen is a big amount. We have been requesting the government to divide the generated income between the FCS and the KFHA that provides many services at the harbour in order to make it self-sufficient,” he said.

The sources said the FCS generated about Rs160 million a month and had no audit for many years.

Sharing his concerns, former vice chairman of the FCS Haji Shafi Mohammad Jamote, also a lawmaker of the PML-Nawaz, said the government needed to hold free and fair elections for the FCS board according to the society’s by-laws.

“The cooperative department should release the notification on the amendment approved with consensus by the general body of the FCS board held five to six years ago,” he said, adding that the amendment was about reducing government- nominated members and increasing elected fishermen’s representatives.

“The body had agreed to reduce number of government officials to five from eight and increase elected members’ number to 10 from seven,” he said.

According to him, the move was aimed to address the issue of political appointees, a major stumbling block in running the FCS with transparency.

He said the meeting was held with the approval of the registrar cooperative department who later refused to release the notification. The law minister, he said, in a recent assembly session had accepted that irregularities were committed in the FCS and measures required to rectify them.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015

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