The shipping policy should be coherent and at par with the international maritime practices to encourage private sector ship owning. This was advised in a detailed briefing given to the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz by the 'Advisory Committee on Pakistan Flag Ship Owning' here on Sunday.
The committee was formed by Ports and Shipping Minister in December 2004 on the direction of the Prime Minister. The committee suggested to starting one-widow and fast-track operation for easy registration and de-registration of vessels by private owners. This would also encourage easy sale and purchase of vessels without waste of time.
Sources told Business Recorder that the Prime Minister sought 45 days time on the occasion to look into the bottlenecks and devise ways for smooth private sector ship owning in existing shipping policy.
Leading ship owners attended the briefing and later discussed steps to be taken for the revival of private sector ship owning in the country.
Sources said the ship owners suggested to the Prime Minister that the government should provide enabling environment with consistent policies for the growth of private ship owning sector.
The requirement of Bill of Entry or General Declaration should be withdrawn except for those vessels coming for dismantling purpose, it was recommended. There should be no restrictions on insurance on Hull & Machinery (H&M), which is presently mandatory for Pakistani vessels. In other words they could enjoy this option anywhere in the world.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should facilitate ship owners for transaction of foreign currency needed for several operational matters anywhere in the world. The sources said that the briefing also discussed Merchant Shipping Policy 2001.
Farooq Rematullah (Ray Shipping), Captain Nassemul Haq (ORS Shipping) Mehdi Taqi (Nassam Shipping), Muneer Millwalla (Millwala Shipping), Abbas Gokal and Ali Raza Gokal (Continental Shipping) Mohammed Rajpur (General Shipping) and Capt. Anwar Shah, Director General of Ports and Shipping and Convenor of the Advisory Committee were present in the briefing.
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