During a press briefing organized at the KPT’s headquarters on Saturday afternoon, the communications minister and the KPT chief avoided several important queries.
On the other hand, the officials of the PNSC — who had chartered the vessel — could not be contacted. The PNSC officials, on their own, did not make efforts to contact the media.
During the press briefing, the chairman of the KPT Vice Admiral Ahmed Hayat kept mum most of the time. On the other hand Senator Ahmed Ali, the communications minister, though answered several questions, left too many important ones unanswered.
He did not even disclose the name of the company which owned the Tasman Spirit. The minister tried his best to give the impression that information was being withheld “in the national interest”.
He only got the footage and slides screened which depicted the efforts undertaken by the KPT to contain the damage done to the environment by the breaking up of the vessel.
In his preamble, the minister stated that several important lessons had been drawn from the worst environmental mishap in the country’s history. However, when asked specifically what those lessons were, he asked the journalists present not to get into too many details.
Mr Ali claimed that fortunately the fallout from the fiasco had been contained to within the seven-kilometre stretch of beach near the Seaview Township and Defence Housing Authority.
At one point the minister admitted that the grounding of the vessel represented “a national disaster”, only to add hastily that “fishing remained unaffected and mangroves were still intact”.
The minister and the KPT chief discussed in detail the composition of the dispersant being sprayed with the help of two aircraft but were at a loss when asked to divulge the total amount so far used. After much ado they settled on a figure of 6,000 litres.
They could not say exactly how much would be spent in the salvage and rescue efforts. Mr Ali said money was not a consideration.
“It doesn’t matter how much money would be spent because the money would be recovered from the insurers.” He did not give the name of the insurance company.
One of the journalists reminded the minister that on Friday, during a press conference, he had promised to make public the findings of the Environmental Protection Agency. He answered in the affirmative but added that he had no environmental report to share.
After the press conference a senior official of the KPT, in response to a question put by Dawn, claimed that the allegations that the vessel had been grounded on purpose were unfair. He said the fiasco was nothing but a consequence of some “honest mistakes” for which at least one head should roll.
He denied that the KPT personnel or the PNSC officials were hand-in-glove with the owners of the vessel. He said he was not aware if a representative of the owners was in Karachi.
A merchant navy captain told Dawn that the ill-fated vessel was owned by a Greek company and it flew a Maltese flag.