Ship breakers appeal to PM to revive sector

The Pakistan Ship Breakers Association (PSBA) Thursday appealed to the Prime Minister to revive Pakistan’s ship breaking industry. It was closed down in the wake of the unfortunate fire incident that occurred at the Gadani Ship Breaking Yard on Nov 1, 2016, in which 26 persons lost their lives, in addition to many being injured.

Addressing a Press Conference, the Pakistan Ship Breakers Association said that while the enquiry committee that had been constituted must act as per the law of the land, the whole industry and inter-linked industries should not be affected.

The PSBA appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif as well as the Chief Minister of Balochistan, Mr. Sanaullah Zehri, that they should take personal interest in the matter and issue orders to revive the industry.

It was also emphasized that the closure of the ship breaking activities at Gadani was causing huge losses to the economy and that hard-working labourers were being deprived of their jobs.

While the government constituted a high-powered committee to investigate the fire incident, it also imposed Section 144 in the area at the Gadani ship breaking yards, putting an end to all ship-breaking activities.

Since the ship breaking industry contributes around 12 billion rupees in taxes on an annual basis, this closure is causing a huge loss to both the federal and Balochistan governments. In addition, the closing down of the industry has rendered thousands of laborers jobless and the supply of steel to the rerolling mills and other allied industries has also stopped.

The PSBA expressed its profound sympathies for those who lost their lives as a result of the unfortunate fire incident on the tanker and announced a compensation package for the workers. This would comprise Rs. 4 lakhs per person under the laws of the Balochistan Government and Rs. 11 lakhs from the PSBA by way of assistance to each affected family. Furthermore, a compensation of Rs. 1 lakh was announced for each person injured in the fire incident.

A loss of some 1 lakh tons of raw material in the steel industry had been created due to the industry’s closure. All those ships that had arrived at the Gadani beach for breaking and had paid all government dues under the Pakistan government rules and had obtained permission from all relevant government departments, are also affected by the closure of the industry.

The PSBA emphasized that under the recommendations of the committee, all due measures should be taken and it must be ensured that in future such incidents are not repeated.

Closure of the ship breaking industry and non-supply of steel to the construction industry would have adverse effects on the important projects coming up as part of CPEC and this would negatively affect the image of Pakistan.

Representatives of the FPCCI, the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) and the Re-Rolling Mills Association were also present at the press conference to express their solidarity with the PSBA.