Every year, dozens of Pakistani fishermen are trapped by Indian maritime forces after they unknowingly stray into Indian waters. However, Islamabad has now decided to implement a system to effectively eliminate this problem. The government intends to install a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) on all fishing vessels. The system will help the government and its relevant maritime agencies monitor the movement of vessels and act to prevent them from straying into Indian waters.
A meeting in this regard was held at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs in Islamabad on Thursday. The meeting was jointly chaired by the federal secretaries of Maritime Affairs Mathar Niaz Rana and Defence Lt. Gen (Retd) Mian Hilal Hussain. The meeting was also attended by Maritime Affairs Ministry Additional Secretary Asad Rafi Chandna, Assistant Fisheries Development Commissioner Farhan Khan, Defence Ministry Additional Secretary – III Faisal Amin, Pakistan Maritime Security Agency’s (PMSA) Captain Umar, Maritime Affairs Deputy Chief Captain Haroon.
Maritime Affairs ministry official highlighted that at the moment, Pakistan has no tracking system in place to monitor the activity of all fishing vessels, either in territorial waters or in the deep sea. The installation of the VMS for fishing vessels, he added, has been long delayed and needs to be implemented as soon as possible.
Apart from tracing and tracking all sea-going vessels, the official said that it will help in fishery management at sea and other issues related to fishing in Pakistan. Recently, there have been protests in the coastal city of Gwadar between local fisherfolk and Chinese companies operating large trawlers. The defence secretary agreed that the project will open multiple avenues of development for the fishery sector. He further highlighted numerous benefits that the VMS would be providing to the country including ensuring proper fishing practices, the prevention of illegal fishing and ensuring traceability of fish and fishery products to bring credibility to exports of fish and fisheries products.
During the meeting, a detailed presentation and a draft proposal on the project were presented. Ideas were also exchanged. The federal secretaries directed the participants to create a steering committee which will meet next week to further present an implementation plan. The meeting decided to involve all the concerned stakeholders in the steering committee and to hold a follow-up meeting in the coming week.