Fishermen have urged the government to end the politically motivated recruitment in the Fishermen Co-operative Society (FCS) and to hold fresh election of the society on the basis of fishermen's constituencies in the city, besides holding fresh membership on merit with the revision of old one.
They said that the government should ensure just distribution of commission money, which the society earns through seafood auctions, as the society had never spent a single penny on welfare of the fishermen. They expressed concern that "no development and welfare work has been carried out in the fishermen communities of the city."
They said that there is not a single hospital or a school established by the FCS, which is a core welfare organisation, and added that the commission money should be spent in fishermen communities in line with their contribution in revenue generation.
Political interference has badly reduced the society's revenues because of the huge recruitment of every ruling political party's workers, who perform no jobs but draw salaries every month, they alleged.
Talking to Business Recorder on Saturday, the president of 'Bona Fide Fishermen and Boat Owners Welfare Association', Asif Bhatti said that the commission money should be spent on fishermen's welfare as per their communities' role in its earning. He said that the number of government nominees, who are presently eight, should be reduced to six but they should have knowledge of the entire fisheries sector, and the concerned government department should carry out audit of the FCS to ensure transparency and help in stopping financial and administrative corruption.
Criticising the political parties for the continued interference and huge financial embezzlement in the FCS funds, he said that it is a fishermen welfare organisation and not the property of any political party, including PPP. The FCS has never helped the fishermen in their financial problems, which they are faced with since long, he said, adding that top officials are paid huge salaries despite being oblivious to the core problems of the fishermen.
Instead, FCS is feeding the ruling party's workers from the society funds which are million of rupees annually, he maintained. He demanded of the government to hold fresh membership of FCS and revise the previous one to separate the genuine from fake members. Besides, it should reintroduce the secret ballet vote system in line with the FCS bylaws, which was previously in place. The "show-of-hands" method has badly hit the electoral process and created serious doubts on election transparency.
Asif recalled that Munzoor Punwar, who was chairman of FCS in 2002 during Pervez Musharraf's reign, had started political interference by inducting his newly formed party (PPP-Patriots) workers in the society. He was also Fisheries Minister at that time. The local fishermen had established the FCS in 1945, which was run on temporary basis till 1960 when the government built a jetty at fish harbour, thus taking hold of it. After the fall of East Pakistan in 1971, the government posted its eight nominated officials and allowed the seven elected fishermen to form a board to run the FCS affairs, he said.
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