The country's largest fishing fleet is feared to scale down its deep-sea operations following a suspension of issuance of the NARA cards to 'illegal' Bengalis working as crew, boats owners said on Wednesday. They said that the federal government had suspended the NARA cards, which were previously being issued to the same 'illegal' Bengalis in the city, started hurting the fishing activities at the country's biggest fisheries harbour.
"With the suspension of the NARA cards issuance by the federal government, the Karachi Fish Harbour Authority [KFHA] has also stopped issuing the crew cards to the illegal Bengalis," a fish harbour official told to Business Recorder that "fishing activities may suffer in the coming days if cards were not issued".
President Sindh Trawlers Owners and Fishermen Association (Stofa), Habibullah Khan Niazi said that the fishing boats widely relied on the Bengalis for its deep-sea operations and feared that suspension of the cards would reduce vessels hunting sails. "The suspension of cards will have huge implications to the fishing activities," he said, adding that "the seafood export sector will suffer as a result". Nearly 50 percent of entire crew is based on Bengalis whom the KFHA had been issuing the cards to sail for fishing, he said, adding that the authority had now stopped issuance of such permissions in the absence of the NARA cards.
"Without such a big number of Bengali crew on board will eventually bring about a decline in the fishing activities," he warned, saying that "the suspension of crew cards has now been a month which started slowing down fishing". He urged the government to help resolve the NARA cards issue and start issuance to the Bengalis without further delays.
The fisheries official confirmed that the KFHA had stopped issuance of the crew cards to all the Bengalis in line with the suspension of the NARA cards by the federal government. "The KFHA will issue them the crew cards if they have legal NARA cards," he said.
However, he did not confirm whether the fishing activities would reduce immediately, saying that "at present the situation is better but the cards suspension may trigger a fall in the boats operation in coming days". He said that the fisheries sector may face a crisis for a reduced catch if such a big number of Bengalis were barred from sailing deep-sea.