PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa livestock and fisheries department’s introduction of e-auction for fishing rights has led to a whopping increase in department’s revenue which has gone up to Rs666 million in the current fiscal from Rs190 million for the last corresponding period, registering an increase of 245 per cent.

The fishing rights for 17 water bodies, mostly dams, across the province have been auctioned for a period of three years. According to official documents, the last auction which had taken place in 2023 had generated Rs190 million.

However, the department recently replaced manual auction mechanism with e-auction system for auctioning fishing rights last month and saw its revenue ballooning to Rs666 million.

The document shows the fishing rights for the Tarbela reservoir were last time auctioned for Rs150 million; however, introduction of e-auction and resultant transparency saw the revenue from this auction jumping to Rs 571 million.

Similarly, the revenue from the auction of the fishing rights in Gomal Zam Dam jumped up to Rs33 million from Rs19 million in the last auction.

Besides, Zaibi Dam Karak rights revenue jumped up to Rs3 million from Rs1.2 million during 2023-26. Chitri Dam Haripur auction saw the revenue increase to Rs3.2 million from Rs1.6 million in the last auction.

Similarly, Kandar Dam Kohat revenue jumped from Rs1.1 million to Rs2 million, auxiliary Kandar Dam Kohat from Rs1 million to Rs4 million and Jalozai Dam Nowhera from Rs2.7 million to Rs3.9 million.

Kot Ragha small dam Kurram revenue increased to Rs1.3 million from Rs1.05 million, Raghghan small dam Bajaur to Rs40 million from Rs2 million while Medani small dam in Kurram to Rs2.5 million from Rs2.04 million.

Livestock secretary Zariful Maani told Dawn that the fisheries department for the first time had fixed the reserve prices for the auction of fishing rights in all 17 public dams and reservoirs for the 2026-29 lease period in the light of a realistic assessment of the fisheries production potential of each water body.

For instance, he said that the reserved price for Tarbela reservoir was fixed at Rs350 million, which was auctioned at Rs571 million while previously Tarbela reservoir had generated just Rs150 million through manual auction.

Mr Maani declared the e-auction, which he claimed was the first-ever in the country, a major step towards transparent governance, digital transformation and sustainable management of fisheries resources.

He said that the e-auction system had eliminated the middlemen, minimised human intervention, maintained a complete digital audit trail, enabled real-time competitive bidding and allowed eligible participants from across Pakistan to participate remotely.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2026