KARACHI, Dec 12: Efforts are afoot to nominate a consensus candidate for the slot of chairman, Fishermen Cooperative Society. Sources are optimistic that stalemate will end in a couple of days and a consensus candidate will emerge soon.

In this regard, they referred to the background efforts being made for a consensus candidate by the government nominated directors, as well as some senior elected directors of the society.

"Elections for the prestigious office were completed on Aug 4 this year in two phases. In the first phase, eight directors were nominated by the provincial government, followed by the election of seven directors who were elected by fishermen according to the provisions of the society by-laws.

Among the government nominated directors included former managing director of the Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority, Shujaat Ali Qarni, who emerged as a consensus candidate for the key office.

However, election for the office of the chairman could not be held due to certain differences on nomination of directors between the ruling party and one of its coalition partners.

Meanwhile, mismanagement has been affecting the performance of Karachi Fish Harbour, adds PPI. Lack of basic facilities, mismanagement and tug-of-war between Fish Harbour Authority and Fishermen Cooperative Society has affected the performance of Karachi Fish Harbour.

A study conducted by the Pakistan Fisher fok Forum said on Saturday that about 15,000 fishing boats bring their catch daily at the KFH, but management has failed to provide any facility to traditional fishermen despite collecting millions of rupees annually from them in the form of different taxes and commissions.

Karachi Fish Harbour, established in 1959, is still devoid of proper fish landing facilities despite passage of 45 years. Spread over 84 acres, there is anchoring capacity of only 550 fishing boats, but presently 15,000 fishing boats are landing there fish catch resultantly, fishermen have to wait for days and in many cases for weeks, to land their catch and take the boats out of the port premises, the report revealed.

Due to lack of proper arrangements, more than 1,800 local boats have been damaged which are lying at the port channel further hindering the passage of fishing boats.

Fish catch of the fishermen usually spoils when they wait for days and weeks to seek passage for landing their fish catch, which results in heavy losses to this workforce. According to official figures, 300 metric tones of fish and shrimp come daily at the KFH.

Both, KFHA and Fishermen Cooperative Society have miserably failed to provide basic facilities to fishermen despite the fact that KFHA annually earns Rs350 million and FCS earns Rs120 million from the fishermen in the form of different taxes. Due to interference and mismanagement, FCS incomes have drastically reduced to only Rs 70 million, the report discloses.