Local fishermen are facing problems due to heavy-handedness of Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA) officials and non-availability of basic amenities including potable water at Karachi fish harbour. Fishermen told Business Recorder on Friday that the KFHA officials treated them unfairly, though they were regular taxpayers to the government.
"There is no welfare of fishermen either from Fishermen Co-operative Society (FCS) or KFHA. Both institutions perturb the fishermen on land and in sea," they accused. "The FCS is also hurting the interests of fishermen," they said and alleged that some of its officials were paid Rs 8,000 per month.
Auction halls were getting dilapidated with a passage of time while FCS was doing nothing to maintain tidiness there, they further said. "FCS earns million of rupees as commission on seafood auction but does not spend a single penny on fishermen welfare," they said and added high food prices were badly hitting them and pushing them blow the poverty line.
"Discriminate and unfair policy of KFHA towards the fishermen are making their life more miserable," said Asif Yunus Bhatti, president of Bonafide Fishermen & Boat Owners Welfare Association.
He said that fishermen, who applied for crew cards several months ago, had not received them yet. KFHA's officials gave priority to solve brokers' problems and agents were getting crew cards illegally, he further said.
He said that KFHA was bound to check cards and other documents of the fishermen venturing into seas but this job had been assigned to Marine Security Agency (MSA), Coast Guards and Karachi Port Trust, which maltreated them and created unnecessary problems, he added.
Bhatti criticised the KFHA for dealing the local fishermen with iron-hand on the pretext of applying EU standards, saying that it should first align itself in line with these standards as its premises gave an archaeological look. He urged KFHA to maintain tidiness at auction halls and harbour and facilitate the local boat owners and fishermen and avoid tussle with them. He demanded of the government to carry out an investigation into the dilapidated condition of the harbour and rising corruption.