Federal govt gets powers to issue deep-sea fishing licences

Dismisses agitation on the part of Sindh and Balochistan governments

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has dismissed concerns of the provincial governments of Sindh and Balochistan and has got powers for issuing deep-sea fishing licences under the new policy in a bid to replenish depleted seafood stocks.

Under the Deep Sea Fishing Licensing Policy 2018, provinces will be required to apply for licences from the central government.

The policy, approved by the federal government, will spark a dispute with Balochistan and Sindh, being major stakeholders as they are located on the coastline, in the next phase of implementation.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a senior government official pointed out that clause 36 of the Fourth Federal Legislative List Part-I covered the areas of fishing and fishery resources beyond territorial waters within jurisdiction of the federal government.



The limits of territorial waters have been specified in terms of the UN Convention on the Law of Seas 1982 and the Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1976 as 12 nautical miles beyond the land territory and internal waters of Pakistan measured from the baseline.

Accordingly, the federal government was authorised to regulate deep-sea fishing - ie, beyond 12 nautical miles from the baseline to the exclusive economic zone stretching over 200 nautical miles across the coastline.

Earlier, the prime minister had constituted a committee to revise and formulate a new deep-sea fishing policy. He also directed that no deep-sea fishing licences should be granted until the introduction of a new policy framework and the criteria set out in the framework were met.

The committee, after deliberations and keeping in view the depleted fishing resources, proposed clear guidelines and measures to improve fishing practices.

A draft of the policy was then shared with the governments of Sindh and Balochistan. The cabinet, in a recent meeting, was briefed that the feedback received from the two provinces was based on incorrect assertion that all fishing practices, monitoring, management, etc including deep-sea fishing fell within their jurisdictions and the federal government may only provide assistance through its advisory role without any regulation.

The policy covered zone-3 only which was the exclusive domain of the federal government, the cabinet was told.



During discussions, it was suggested that the policy should include broad-based goals and targets with respect to employment generation, extent of value addition and increase in exports. Certain international standards should also be incorporated into the policy.

Furthermore, the policy would deal, in detail, with the licensing regime, therefore, it would be appropriate to rename it as the deep-sea fishing licensing policy.

It was emphasised that Article 172(2) of the Constitution fully empowered the federal government to frame a deep-sea fishing policy whereas provinces were not amenable to the idea of designing a generalised fishing policy.

It was pointed out that announcement of the policy would help the federal government in regulating deep-sea fishing by introducing licensing and enforcement regimes which would ensure sustainable fishing practices and help replenish depleted fish stocks.

The enforcement of the policy would largely be done in consultation with the Maritime Security Agency.

The cabinet approved the renaming of the policy as Deep Sea Fishing Licensing Policy 2018. It was also decided that zone-3, which would be regulated by the federal government, would be open to all provinces for obtaining licences and the number of licences would be rationalised.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2018.

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