GWADAR: National Party Chairman Dr Abdul Malik Baloch on Sunday demanded an immediate ban on all foreign fishing trawlers on the Makran coast.

While calling Chinese and interprovincial trawlers hunting off the Balochistan coast “illegal,” the NP leader said they were depriving the local population of their livelihoods in addition to depleting marine resources.

The National Party has staged protest demonstrations in every tehsil of Gwadar district in recent days against hunting by foreign trawlers, Dr Malik said, adding that the government had paid little attention to the grievances of the local population.

He said the “genocide of marine life” could not be accepted.

While expressing serious concerns about allowing foreign trawlers and other provinces to fish on the Makran coast, the NP leader said: “All illegal hunting licenses should be revoked immediately and trawlers foreigners and interprovincials should be banned from fishing on the coast of Balochistan.

Speaking about the provincial government, he said Baluchistan’s coastal belt appeared to have become a hub of the extortion mafia due to poaching. The Department of Maritimes and Fisheries had gone blind and deaf as they could not hear the voices of the masses, he said, adding that it seemed they were unaware of the problem of depriving residents of their livelihoods.

Dr Malik said people in every forum, including Pakistan’s Senate, are protesting against anti-popular and anti-Balochistan movements. He said the positive effects of the China-Pakistan economic corridor were not visible anywhere in Balochistan, but the adverse effects of government policies on marine life and people’s livelihoods were visible to everyone.

Posted in Dawn, le 28 June 2021