KARACHI, Feb 1: An uneasy calm prevailed at Karachi Fish Harbour on Wednesday amid the boat-owners strike which has badly affected normal activity.

The boat-owners, protesting against the hike in diesel prices, have anchored their fishing vessels at the harbour’s channel since Jan 14.

According to harbour sources, fish prices had gone up due to a sluggish landing of fish catch. President of the Mahigeer Action Committee Haji Khan Mir Khan said that more than 70 per cent (of about 16,000) boats and vessels had to be stopped from going into the sea as the cost of fishing trips had gone up to an unaffordable level due to the increase in fuel prices.

“We had repeatedly been drawing the attention of higher authorities to the grievances of fishermen community and the boat-owners in this regard. However, no heed was paid,” he lamented.

He said the government was providing a subsidy of Rs10 per litre to foreign vessels, but no relief at all to the local fishermen. Considering the economic condition of local fishermen, he suggested, the government should at least provide a 50 per cent subsidy on fuel as was being practised in the neighbouring countries, like India, Bangladesh and Iran.

Khan Mir warned that the fisheries sector was facing an imminent collapse with fishermen communities being faced with a number of serious problems, which the authority was not ready to address.

He deplored that the Fishermen Cooperation Society (FCS), which was the only genuine welfare body of fishermen, had been rendered ineffective as the meeting of its legally constituted board of governors to elect a chairman and a vice-chairman had not been called despite passage of a long time. In the absence of the top office-bearers, he added, the FCS could not run its affairs smoothly.

This situation was causing frustration among fishermen communities, he said, indicating that there was no other forum which the fishermen and boat-owners could approach to get their problems resolved.