KARACHI, Aug 29: The grounding of Greek oil tanker Tasman Spirit off city coast has been termed a conspiracy to harm the economy of country and that of the fishermen, to destablize the government.

The views were expressed by city government’s Fisheries and Agricultural Committee chairman at a press conference held at his office on Friday.

He demanded of the government to constitute a high-level investigation body to expose those responsible for the ecological disaster to avert such incidents in future.

He said that if preventive measures had been taken, not only the oil spill would have been avoided, but the environmental pollution caused by it could also be curtailed.

He held the authorities concerned responsible for the disaster and said the effects of the spill could have been minimized by taking fishermen into confidence.

Fish being sold in the market were not polluted and were eatable, because most of the fish were caught from the coastline of Balochistan and a large quantity of fish was brought from interior of Sindh, he said, complaining that the media portrayed the situation in very negative way causing devastating effects on the business of fishermen, resulting in reduction in fisheries’ exports to other countries.

He maintained that poor fishermen, already suffering due to deep-sea fishing trawlers, had been badly affected by the disaster and demanded of departments concerned to immediately inform media about the actual situation, otherwise, he expressed fear that the European Union, a big market for Pakistani seafood, could impose a ban on it.

Criticizing the attitude of environmental agencies, he said that these were issuing statements regarding oil pollution at the coastline, but were turning a blind eye to the chemical waste being released into sea from industrial units in the city.

Members of the committee, Dr Yousaf, Mubarak Baloch, Dilawar Shah, Michael Javed, Qasim Khan, Hanif Chatani, Rabaa Somroo and Hafiz Bano were also present on the occasion.—PPI