Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) has failed to finalise National Policy Framework for fisheries and aquaculture development to increase contribution of the sector to the total GDP growth.
Sources in the Minfal told Business Recorder although the Ministry was engaged in the exercise for about one-and-half-year with the help of local and foreign consultants, it failed to develop consensus among the stakeholders on the policy framework. The draft policy prepared by the local consultants Dr Muhammad Ayub, M Moazzam Khan, Safdar Abbas, Junaid Watto and foreign consultants Dr G Haylor, William Savage, Kath Copley and Graem Macfayden and was discussed in a workshop last month.
The draft policy suggests strategies to increase national fish supply based on sustainable production and improved marketing of aquatic products by attracting private sector investment in aquaculture both inland and coastal areas. It also suggests institutional improvements and development within the fisheries and aquaculture sectors and development of human resources, skills through more research activities in the sector. The draft policy also suggests legal advisors to look into all the existing fisheries related laws and do away with the clauses that contradict with the international legal framework and human rights. It also recommends soft loans and equipment such as nets and other tools to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people attached with the sector.
The draft policy could not be approved and was returned to the concerned department for removal of technical objections before it is submitted for final approval.
The final policy draft was to be finalised on May 19 at a meeting chaired by the Secretary Agriculture, Muhammad Ismail and attended by chief secretaries of all the provinces, AJK, Northern Areas and Fata for final approval, but could not be finalised.
The Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), DG, National Agriculture Research Council (NARC), Incharge fisheries and aquaculture NARC, officials of the provincial fisheries and revenue department, representative of CBR, EPB and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, Economic Affairs Division and Board of Investment participated in a two-day workshop held on May 17-18 that had discussed and forwarded the draft policy for final approval.
It was learnt that the government wanted an autonomous body headed by the private sector to implement the policy with the initial funding and technical assistance by the government. The body must be empowered to take independent decisions and the role of bureaucracy would be limited to only overseeing.
The consultants, however, had recommended an institutional arrangement to ensure effective implementation, overseeing and monitoring of the policy.
It was recommended that a high-level steering committee at federal level and implementation committees at provincial and district levels should be constituted for overseeing the implementation whereas PARC and NARC should be assigned the research work.