After a long period of more than three decades, the administrative control of lakes in interior Sindh will be withdrawn from rangers/paramilitary forces and transferred to Sindh Government. The control over these lakes situated in the coastal areas of interior Sindh was handed over to rangers and other paramilitary forces in 1972 by then government.
Awarding the control the government adopted the stance as these coastal areas were in the vicinity of frontiers, its control should be in the hands of paramilitary forces that they could not only keep a vigilant eye on security situation but also check the menace of smuggling there.
On these basis the government made an accord with paramilitary forces on the condition that 10 percent of the total income of these lakes will be spent on the development of the respective local areas while the remaining 90 percent will be incurred to meet the expenses of paramilitary forces.
However, this agreement resulted in the absolute denial of the fundamental rights of local people/fishermen and spread rampant unemployment among them.
This statement was made by the Deputy Convener Rabita Committee Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Dr Farooq Sattar while addressing a press conference on Monday.
He mentioned though the agreement was reviewed and distribution of income from those lakes was revised to the proportion of 35/65 percent in 1977, the local people still were not happy with that and were aspiring to get the full control of those lakes. In that perspective, he said MQM with other political parties of the province made consistent and concerted efforts to get those lakes free from rangers' control and finally succeeded.
He pointed out specially the people/fishers of Badin would be the main beneficiaries of that move which would provide them development and employment opportunities. He mentioned rangers used to give the fishing rights in those lakes on contract basis through auctions while he proposed issuance of license for that purpose.
He said the current contract of rangers was going to be expire on 31st December this year after which no review or extension would be made in it. From January, the provincial government would start issuing fishing licenses at nominal fees to the local fishermen, he added. He also thanked to the President Musharraf, Chief Minister Sindh and Governor Sindh for their consistent support to end the control of rangers from those lakes.
When he was asked whether had there been any official notification issued in that regard so far. He replied no, but assured as the President Musharraf himself directed the DG Rangers Javed Zia to hand over the control of those lakes to the provincial government, he was quite sure the required notification would shortly be issued.
Defending his answer he said " it is the biggest benefit of a President in uniform that his directions and instruction are followed strictly and there is no chance of delay in execution of an administrative order on the pretext of issuance of an official notification or other reasons".
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