BADIN, March 9: Speakers at a seminar demanded of the government to abolish fishing on contract system in the coastal waters of Sindh and declare the area as a free zone for fishermen.
The seminar on ‘Fishermen and Indus Delta’ was held on Saturday at the Shah Latif Hall here in collaboration with the National Resource Protection and the Fisher Folk Forum.
MPA Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro said rampant joblessness had made the life of fishermen miserable.
He said that fishermen, most of whom lived in the coastal belt of Sindh, deserved to be given fishing rights under the international law.
Dr Mandhro said that he would move the issues, affecting the fishermen, in the Sindh Assembly for a permanent solution in this regard.
Other speakers termed the contract system an anti-fishermen plan and according to them this system deprived over two million fishermen of their fundamental rights.
They opposed intervention of Rangers in fishing matters and accused contractors of depriving the fishermen of their right to earn livelihood.
Those, who spoke on the occasion, included Mohammad Ali Shah, chairman of the Fisher Folk Forum, Abu Bakar Shaikh, chairman of the Natural Resources Protection, Ghulam Mustafa Jamali, Prof Abdullah Mallah, Jan Mohammad Mallah and Ali Mohammad Shaikh.
TEN HURT: Ten persons were injured in their effort to douse a devastating fire, which destroyed the sugarcane crop stored on the farm of Pir Sadaruddin Shah Rashidi, Sindh minister for irrigation and power, in Phahyari deh, Tando Bago taluka.
The fire, which broke out on Friday, engulfed three-acre-wide area and destroyed a tractor-trolley, loaded with sugarcane, in a nearby field.
Local Haris and farm workers used mud and clay to control the fire and save the crop of the irrigation minister without any success in this regard.
Those, who were injured in effort to put out the fire, include Hashim, Ghulam Rasool, Poonjomal, Mir Hassan and Haq Nawaz.
The cause of the fire could not be ascertained.
In a similar incident, eight houses were gutted on Saturday in the Heesbani village near Matli.
The fire destroyed grain, stored in these houses, jewellry and other household articles.
Houses, destroyed by the fire, belonged to Yar Mohammad Mallah, Mohammad Mallah, Bhaloo Mallah and others.
The fire is said to have broken in one of the houses during cooking.