HYDERABAD, March 5: Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Mallah Tanzim chairman Mohammad Arib Mallah has demanded that the chief minister should convene a meeting of fishermen's representatives to discuss ways and means to resolve their problems.

In a statement issued here on Friday, he said his organization was ready to give practicable suggestions to improve the lot of fishermen.

He demanded that unsustainable fishing gears should be banned forthwith and fishermen be issued licenses. He said most of 1,202 lakes and ponds in Sindh had either dried up or turned saline.

Arib Mallah said the acute shortage of water in Sindh had compelled a large number of fishermen to migrate to Punjab and Afghanistan. He said 300,000 fishermen from Keti Bundar to Kotri downstream were living in extreme poverty.

He reminded the government that in 1976, the Sindh Assembly had passed a bill in which the contract system had been abolished and the license system introduced. He said in 1995 the authorities introduced a mole system on the advise of the Karachi Fishermen Society but within six months, the Sindh government suffered a loss of Rs35 million. He warned that if the same system was reintroduced in Badin, it would not prove feasible.

MEDICAL CAMP: The Narconon, Hyderabad, in collaboration with Novartis consumer health, set up a medical camp at the Hyderabad central jail here on Friday to provide free medical treatment to patients and give them training against narcotics.