Pakistan to provide direct funding to fishermen

Karachi: Pakistan is planning to provide financial assistance to fishermen in order to promote entrepreneurship for economic empowerment.

The federal government is going to offer direct funding to the fishermen under its flagship “Kamyab Jawan” (successful youth) programme. The programme offers loans to skilled and qualified youth for entrepreneurship.

“This opportunity is being generated for fishermen to develop small partnerships within their community under Kamyab Jawan programme to purchase boats for fishing on their own, instead of doing jobs related to fisheries,” Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi said. “This is being rolled out for first time in the history of Pakistan,” he said.

The federal minister expressed gratitude to the Bank of Punjab for partnering with his ministry to launch the programme.

He said the memorandum of understanding (MoU) would be signed this month.

“The MoU is ready. I want the prime minister to grace the occasion as it would send a good message,” he said.

He said international watchdog bodies on fisheries were of the view that there were enough fishing boats in the country.

Environmental damage

The federal minister said environmental conditions for fishermen had worsened in the Karachi Fish Harbour owing to the constant discharge of municipal waste and sewage into the sea. He said that urgent efforts were required to tackle the issue as 550 million gallons of waste water from Karachi was disposed daily into the sea without being treated.

“Out of 14,000 tonnes waste generated by Karachi, up to 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes is also dumped daily into the sea,” he said.

He said such a practice created unbearable environmental conditions for fishermen as they had to move to the deep sea for fishing. “I have been raising this issue for the last two years and for this reason I also launched the Clean Karachi campaign,” he said.