The Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping, National Assembly is meeting on June 15 (today) under the chairmanship of Rana Mahmood-ul-Hassan to deliberate on Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill 2011, yet no stakeholders and maritime experts are taken on board by the committee.
Sources informed Pakistan Today that the committee is going to take unilateral decisions on the bill, while the major beneficiaries including terminal operators, shipping agents, shipping and maritime experts, and Karachi and Federal chambers of commerce and industries have been completely ignored by the committee.
Moreover, the committee will also be discussing the Sea Carriage Shipping Documents Bill 2011, but to the utter disappointment of maritime lawyers and experts who have a share in drafting these bills, no invitation to take them on board has been extended by the committee, sources said.
One of the issues is that the bill sent to the committee by the Ministry of Ports and Shipping does not have one mandatory clause which had been suggested for inclusion on page 6 as subsection (6) of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, sources added. The suggested clause states, “For the avoidance of any doubt and notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, it is clarified that the carrier shall be bound to act in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract of carriage entered into by it.”
The sources demanded an immediate halt to any deliberations on the bill, until and unless all stakeholders and maritime experts are taken on board by the committee, for this would go to the Parliament for further approval as an act and would serve as a negative factor for the shipping industry of the country. “The direct beneficiaries of the act are not consulted, while the experts and maritime time lawyers have also been ignored by the committee, thus it is requested that the bill be sent back to the Ministry of Ports and Shipping for it to consider a consensus and the views of the stakeholders,” sources added.
Important clauses of the bill state an extension to the whole of Pakistan and also that it shall come into force at once. The sub-clause of clause 2 says, “any reference in this act to the holder of a bill of lading shall be a reference to any of the persons namely: a person with possession of the bill who, by virtue of being the person identified in the bill, is the consignee of the goods to which the bill relates.’ Similarly, clause 7 of the Bill states that, “The Bills of Lading Act, 1856 (IX of 1856) is hereby repealed, and nothing in this act shall have effect in relation to any document issued before the coming into force of this act.’
Ministry of Ports and Shipping stated the objectives and reasons of the bill, saying, “The bill of lading is used as the contract of carriage for transportation of goods by sea. It is a negotiable document of title and serves as receipt for carriage of goods, and is transferable by endorsement.
The propriety in goods passes to the endorsee. The rights and liabilities of the consignees and the endorsee are defined in the Bill of Lading Act 1856 of British India, which has been inherited by Pakistan’. “However, with passage of time, transport documents other than bill of lading are also used commonly. At present the holders of transport documents, other than those of the bill of lading, do not have the necessary legal cover. To provide legal cover to the sea waybill, the ship’s delivery order and other transport documents that may be notified by the government, the Sea Carriage Shipping Documents Bill 2009 has been drafted to replace the Bill of Lading Act 1856.”
It is pertinent to mention that the Standing Committee is meeting today on June 15 under the chairmanship of Rana Mahmood-ul-Hassan of Pakistan Muslim League (N), while the Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri would be present at the meeting. The agenda for the meeting includes a further discussion on Deliberations on Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill 2011 and an additional debate on Deliberations on Sea Carriage Shipping Documents Bill 2011.