Staff Reporter
Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi held the Third Quarterly meeting with Seafarers and Registered Manning Agent on Friday here at Pakistan National Shipping Corporation office. The first two such meetings were held in August and November last year where issues faced by seafarer community were voiced by both fresh graduates of the Pakistan Marine Academy and those who are already serving in the field. After taking the oath in 2018, Ali Zaidi established a hotline for complaints about Maritime Affairs, which started receiving the complaints about the problems being faced by the community for the last seventy years. Prioritizing the resolution of these issues, the ministry resolved all the major ones that seafarers were facing while serving in Pakistan and abroad. One of the major issues was Sign-on/Sign-off that a seafarer had to comply with before joining a foreign vessel. It not only wasted their precious time, but also in some cases the job opportunity was lost. It has been abolished and now the seafarers have to produce their documents at airports to leave for their assignment conveniently. Another concern was the mismanagement in the Shipping Office Karachi which has been resolved by bringing order resulting in issuance of Seamen Service Books and other documents without delay. The digitization of the shipping office and online access is underway which will be launched in a couple of months. In addition to the above, for the convenient issuance of the medical certificate for seafarers, the board of doctors has been expanded and now the medical facility is present in cities other than Karachi too. As far as the Machine Readable Seamen Identity Cards are concerned the system was set up with the help of NADRA and KPT and the permanent facility will be ready as soon as the system is ready which is expected in May 2020. The funds have already been released for this. For the creation of job opportunities for young cadets, the Ministry has come up with a road map which will be implemented as soon as the details are finalized.
