Centre urged to incorporate Sindh stakeholders' input in Deep Sea Fisheries Policy

The government of Sindh has claimed that new Deep Sea Fisheries Policy 2018 does not have viewpoints of stakeholders and their observations regarding development of fishery sector in the country should be incorporated in it.
The sub-committee of Public Accounts Committee met here on Tuesday to look into reasons for depletion of fish stock and make recommendations including proposing legislation where required. Dr Arif Alvi is convener of the sub-committee. The secretary Maritime Affairs informed the committee that the cabinet approved in principle the "Deep Sea Fishing Policy 2018" on March 21 which allowed the federal government to register and issue licences to fishing vessels and boats beyond 12 nautical miles and up to 200 nautical miles in buffer area.
He further said that subject of fisheries had not been devolved to provinces after promulgation of the 18th Constitutional Amendment as it was held by the federal government, added if provinces had some observations then they can take their matters to Council of Common Interests (CCI).
Challenging the federal government's authority for registration and issuing licences, the director general Fisheries Sindh said the matter is with Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) and it was a provincial subject as sector was devolved in 2011. However, the federal government had reverted to its decision after one month in case of the fisheries.
An official of Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) informed the committee that the agency seizes 100 Indian boats annually in the Arabian Sea. He said recently they seized a few Indian boats out of 195 as deterrence.
He asked the committee to permit them for auction of Indian boats seized by PMSA as the number of boats was huge and it is difficult for them to keep them.
The committee was suggested that there should be no customs duty on import of feed, seeds and equipment for fish.
Secretary Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries (FW&F) Department of Punjab, Mian Waheed-ud-Din pointed out lack of cooperation from the federal government in resolving the problems being faced by the Punjab government. He suggested that the federal government should involve international fisheries forums like FAO, NACA, Info Fish, and LOTC for technical trainings of fishery staff in Pakistan.
He asked the committee to recommend the government to exempt fish feed from 10 percent duty like it exempted the poultry feed.
He further said that in land fish farms cover 66,000 acres of land in Punjab. Gujranwala, Muzafar Garh and Sargodha have most of the 330 fishery farms in private sector and 44 are run by the provincial government of Punjab.
He further said that 80 fish hatcheries/nurseries carry out the artificial breeding, hatching and feeding through the early life stages of a fish to preserve and improve the fish species.
He said that the provincial government imported a fish seed which is helping control dengue by eating 'dengue larva'. He maintained that all the fish farms have installed solar tube-wells at subsidized rates. The secretary Livestock & Fisheries Department of Sindh informed the committee that the authority registered 4,500 fishing boats and issued licences to them.
Talking about the overall situation in Sindh, he said that the province has 23 jetties in whole Sindh. The province has 3,500 private fish farms and covers 150,000 acres of inland fishery farms.
He further said that they have a total of 49 fish hatcheries in the province and asked for three more in the province, adding that they were going to notify 23 authorized landing sites in Sindh to curb illegal jetties.
Representative from Balochistan said that the province has only one hatchery and three are under-construction. He further said fish farms are situated in three districts near the Balochistan-Sindh border. Representative from KP informed the committee that the province is producing 130,000 trout fish and has 160 fish farms.