By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 19: Police fired blank shots and
teargas shells to disperse fishermen who had
converged on Toll Plaza, Super Highway and
National Highway to enter the city with intention
to take part in a rally organised by the Pakistan
Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) on Monday.
At least 22 PPF members were arrested and the PFF
claimed that another 17, including two women,
were unaccounted for.
The forum had planned to hold a protest
demonstration at the Mazar-i-Quaid and march
towards the Sindh Assembly to draw the
government’s attention to the plight of fishermen
communities of Sindh. Its demands included end to
the contract system for fishing in the inland
water bodies and ban on deep-sea trawlers.
Fishermen from the remote areas of Sindh had
travelled to Karachi to take part in the rally.
Meanwhile, PFF President Mohammad Ali Shah has
condemned the police action and told Dawn that 17
participants, including two women who had come
from Badin, were still unaccounted for since the
police launched the crackdown.
Terming the police action ’injustice with the
fisherman community’, he argued that it was not a
political rally. "We are part of the civil
society, and fighting for our due rightsŠtaking
out a peaceful rally and staging a demonstration
is our constitutional right," he argued.
Referring to the police action at Gaghar Phatak,
Mr Shah said the police first allowed the
protesters to go ahead after stopping them
briefly at the place. However, shortly
afterwards, the policemen who had taken up
positions around started firing teargas shells at
the buses carrying men and women.
At Toll Plaza on Super Highway also, police
chased and beat up the fishermen with batons as
if they were animals, he deplored, claiming that
at least 200 people were injured in the police
action.
Despite the police action, a number of protesters
had managed to reach Mazar-i-Quaid where they
were encircled by police and told not to move
ahead, he added.
According to the PFF chief, his organisation had
written to the TPOs Jamshed and Saddar, DIG
Operations, CCPO Karachi and the provincial home
department several weeks back for protection to
the planned rally, but there was no response from
any of them.
"At least they could have intimated us if they
were not going to allow holding of the rally," he
contended.
Meanwhile, senior police officials could not be
reached to comment when contacted.
According to PPI, Mr Shah told a rally at the
Mazar-i-Quaid that holding peaceful protest was
their basic right as enshrined in the
constitution.
He claimed that more than 7,000 people from
across Sindh had come to Karachi to participate
in the rally but had been stopped by
law-enforcement agencies at Toll Plaza using
force in violation of the democratic norms and
standards.
He claimed that the agencies applied baton-charge
and fired teargas shells to block the rally
injuring more than a dozen of participants.
However, he said, fishermen would not stop their
protest until their demands were met. He
threatened to organise a march up to Islamabad
and rallies in all major cities of the country if
the government failed to take concrete measure
towards resolving the problems being faced by
fishermen. He said that the issues would be
raised at international forums.
Terming the contract system for fishing in inland
water bodies ’economic murder of fishermen’, he
pointed out that fishermen across Sindh were
facing starvation due to the system but the
rulers were least concerned about their miseries.
PFF leaders demanded abolition of contract system
and implementation of licence system in its
place. They urged the Sindh government to fulfil
its commitment by introducing the fishermen
cooperative societies system.
"Even if licence system is introduced, there is
fear that the influential people who have been
exploiting the fishing resources would not allow
fishermen to fish independently. Therefore, the
government should make appropriate arrangements
to protect fisherman communities’ interests,"
speakers on the occasion said, urging the
government to bring illegal occupation of fishing
waters to an end and take stern action against
occupiers.
They pointed out that the fisherman communities
of Sindh had been fishing freely in these waters
to earn their livelihood since 1947 but, with the
objective of regulating fishing and registering
local fishermen, the Sindh government had
introduced licence system in 1977 and provided it
legal cover through the Sindh Fisheries Act-1980.
A few years back, they said, the Sindh government
introduced contract/auction system that resulted
in transfer of fishing rights to influential
contractors, rendering the local fishermen almost
without a livelihood.
They deplored that the government during the
current year started the process of abolishing
the licence system across the province.
Leaders and workers of the Muttahida Labour
Federation, Pearl Continental Hotel Workers’
Union, Sindh Hari Mazdoor Mahigeer Alliance,
Mazdoor Mahaz Amal and others worker unions and
organisations attended the rally in a large
number.