Port Qasim Authority (PQA) estimates Rs 2 billions losses due to protests and rallies by dockers, bringing operations to a standstill on a regular basis at the country's second biggest harbour, seaport sources said on Thursday. Through a letter, PQA has recently invited the attention of Chief Secretary Sindh, DIG Sindh Police, DG Pakistan Rangers Sindh and SSP, Bin Qasim towards the poor law and order situation in Bin Qasim area.
The authority says the protesting dockers are behind the suspension of seaport operations on a regularly basis due to which the seaport suffered Rs 2 billion loss. The dockers are primarily the employees of private cargo handling companies at Port Qasim, who are demanding of the newly built private dry cargo terminal- Fauji Akbar Portia (FAP) to provide them jobs.
The FAP operates on built, operate and transfer basis with Rs 10 billion investment, they said, adding, "PQA is of the view that it has no role whatsoever in providing jobs to labourers at the private terminal operating at PQA". The authority says the protests and rallies and regular closures of seaport operations damage its credibility amongst the stakeholders, besides tarnishing the country's key harbour's global image, they said.
"PQA believes the protests leading to closures of operations at the harbour are sending a negative message to the global investors about the port's mismanagement and lawlessness, which could stop further foreign investments," the sources said. They said such activities were directly hitting the country's economy and depriving the national exchequer of taxes, besides scaling down port duties.
They said PQA had an exclusive agreement with FAP for handling of all kind of dry cargo including grains and fertilisers in bulk or bagged form (dry form only) except containerised cargo. According to the agreement, FAP enjoys exclusive rights to handle ships bringing grains in dry form, for instance, cereals, rice, seeds (including oil seeds) and pulses.
Talking about the allegations, which employees of cargo handling companies against the PQA for steering ships towards FAP, the sources said in line with the agreement between the authority and FAP, vessels of dry grain cargo would be berthed at the newly built terminal.
"The agreement enables the FAP to handle dry cargo for which it had built a dedicated set-up to load and unload ships at a cost of Rs 10 billion with a capacity of managing up to four million tons of cargo, annually," the sources said. Port authorities are of the view that the allegations by the dockers are baseless, who say the FAP could not deal in bulk or bagged dry cargo. However, according to the agreement, FAP cannot handle containerised cargo," the sources quoted the officials as saying.
They said the port operators had also discontentment over the coercive tactics by the dockers through a deliberate campaign levelling allegations and bringing the operations to a halt for pressing their demands for jobs. "Levelling baseless allegations against an alliance of national and foreign investors, may not serve anyone's interest," the sources quoted the port's officials.
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