Chairman Fishermen Cooperative Society Abdul Berr has said that some people are trying to create unrest in the conscious fishing community by spreading propaganda regarding deep sea fishing policy to achieve their nefarious goals. “The mafia, the patron of 52 illegal jetties that have injected the government with billions of rupees, will have to face the consequences.” Abdul Bar was addressing an emergency press conference in the boardroom of Karachi Fish Harbour along with Directors Asif Bhatti and Abdul Rauf Ibrahim on Tuesday. He said, “A few months ago, we entered into an agreement with a Chinese company, in the interests of the cooperative society and the fishermen. It has the signatures of all the board of directors. We have given priority to the interests of our fishermen and fishing trawlers of any other countrywill not be allowed to fish in our waters.” The FCS chairman said that the society did not call the trawlers standing in the sea. We also came to know about their presence much later. In our agreement with the company, we have emphasized that if the federal government allows fishing in these trawlers, 70% of our fishermen must be in these trawlers. Similarly, 70% recruitment of our fishermen in modern fishing processing units will be required. So that the real benefit goes to our own fishermen. And to these fishermen, the cooperative society will conduct training workshops to acquaint the fishermen with the latest methods of fishing. He said at present about 160 seafood processing factories are operating at Karachi Fish Harbor. Unfortunately, there are only two factories that meet EU standards. And only these 2 factories can export seafood to Europe. “The catch we want to sell in the international market for 100 rupees. Instead we get ten rupees. With this in mind, we are trying to modernize our fishing.” Abdul Berr said “We have a contract with a Chinese company that will provide us with modern fiber boats, which we will give to our fishermen in easy installments who do not have boats.”
