Seafood economy: can PTI bell the cat?

That Pakistan has been fishing peanuts was highlighted earlier. The question is why hasn’t the country focused on fishing industry. There are no cut and dry answers to this, because as such it is an ill researched subject.

The easiest answer lies on the slippery slope of culture. It wouldn’t be exaggeration of truth that the sea – let alone seafood - has never really captured the imagination of Pakistanis. Karachiites indeed swarm to beach fronts to beat the heat, the traffic and the mires of the city of fright they live in. But save for recent wave of elite-led scuba diving around Charna Island, there are no bustling water sports activities to be found, no vibrant culture of sea food joints along the marine drive, nor a culture of fishing as a leisure activity.

Sailor, merchant or military, is not a sought-after profession. And while patriotic videos of various sorts show the image of ‘hardworking’ farmers, textile factory and steel mill workers, handsome pilots and army cadets; fishermen or navy cadets are hardly ever seen in such videos. It is an irony that seafood is not a running menu item even at the marine side food joints in Karachi: people eat chicken and beef by the sea. Epic!

The second reason behind lack of focus on fishing industry is the governance model. Until the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010, provinces did not enjoy complete autonomy over fisheries. So much so that Korangi Fish Harbour in Karachi was under Islamabad’s control. How can a ‘babu’ sitting in Islamabad, who has most likely non-coastal roots, efficiently manage the sea economy?

Post-devolution things should have improved, theoretically. Then again Sindh and Balochistan governments aren’t exactly paragon of good governance. Take for example the case of Balochistan Coastal Development Authority formed an eponymous act of 1998. The functions of the body includes the development of fisheries and jetties along with a wide array responsibilities from drinking water, tourism and electricity, and education, to palm and coconut plantation, oil refinery, roads, and dams.

But why would governments in Sindh, Balochistan or even Islamabad develop the sea economy. Behind the lens of idealism is a hard reality: development is a deeply political process. And the political economy is not in favour of sea economy. Not only does the sea economy employ much less labour than other economic sectors (hence not a lucrative vote bank), it doesn’t also boast a lot of elite.

The federal and provincial legislatures boast rice elite, or sugar/wheat/cotton elite for that matter; they boast industrial elites; but there are no fishing elites in the power circles, political, economic or social. The fishing community is largely poor, and hence it is outside the political process.

The sea economy did once boast shipping elites, but they were islands of minority that lost its weight following Bhutto’s nationalisation. Most other partition-era migrants were not the fishing class; they mostly took up white collar jobs, as did domestic middle-class migrants from Punjab, KP and interior Sindh while Karachi morphed into a financial hub with industrial clusters.

These are some of the hard historical and cultural realities the PTI faces against its 2018 manifesto promise of developing the fisheries industry. Islamabad only has the mandate for ‘fishing beyond territorial waters’; fishing within territorial sea waters and inland fisheries lies in the provincial domain. And the PTI doesn’t have a government in both coastal provinces.

The best it can do is to focus on developing inland fisheries in KP and Punjab.

Both have several identified clusters of fresh water, adjacent to which the respective provincial fisheries departments can try developing an aquaculture-based vibrant fish economy. Then again thanks to a negligible vote bank and lack of fishing elites don’t be surprised if the sector remains wanting by 2023.