KARACHI: The Pakistan Ship Breakers Association (PSBA) has appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri to allow resumption of ship-breaking activities in Gadani which have been suspended after an unfortunate fire incident on a tanker left at least 26 workers dead and several others injured one month ago.

Addressing a press conference at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) head office here on Thursday, Mohammad Akhlaq Memon of the PBSA said the Gadani ship-breaking industry played an important role in the country’s economy.

“It is the third biggest ship-breaking industry in the world and besides earning so much revenue for the country, it provides jobs to a large number of locals as well as people from other provinces,” he added.

He claimed that the Gadani ship-breaking industry offered bigger salary to its workers than that of Dubai. “An unskilled worker earns between Rs30,000 and Rs40,000, a semi-skilled worker between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000 and a skilled worker gets up to Rs70,000 in Gadani.”

Mr Memon urged the government to reopen the Gadani ship-breaking yard as Section 144 [of the Criminal Procedure Code] imposed there after the Nov 1 fire accident was badly affecting the livelihood of workers.

FPCCI’s senior vice president Shaikh Khalid Tawab said the closure was not only affecting the ship-breaking industry of the area but also several other businesses which depended on steel from Gadani, such as the Sher Shah market in Karachi and rerolling steel mills.

“The price of steel has also increased as a result of the closure,” he said, adding that foreign investors looking to invest in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor were also worried and watching the situation in Gadani with interest. “There are so many construction companies out there, which depend on steel from Gadani.”

Mr Tawab said that such accidents also took place in other parts of the world, but they didn’t stop functioning. “There are aviation and train accidents, too, but airports and train stations are not shut down. Then why work at the Gadani ship-breaking yard has been halted?” he asked.

Mohsin Sheikhani, chairman of the Association of Builders and Developers, Karachi, said the ship-breaking industry paid about Rs12 billion in taxes annually. He claimed that the closure of the ship-breaking yard had deprived the steel industry of about 100,000 tonnes of raw material.

He said all ships that had arrived at the Gadani beach had yet to be dismantled, even though their owners had paid dues while obtaining permission from the government departments concerned.

The PBSA expressed its profound sympathies for those who had lost their lives as a result of the fire incident and announced a compensation package for their families — Rs400,000 per person as per laws of the Balochistan government and Rs1,100,000 from the PBSA by way of assistance to each affected family.

An amount of Rs100,000 each will be paid to the injured.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2016