Of Maritime Unfair

Marry-time or maritime, both are facing hardships these days. The aspirant searchers of marry-time are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic just for a period of six months. The maritime affairs unfortunately are affected by the pandemic of ignorance, conflicts, vested interest and least understanding of the blue economy for years and decades now.

At present, maritime is at the edge of disaster and looking for immediate rescue if Pakistan is genuinely interested to achieve any targets of the relevant Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-14) commonly known as ‘Life Below Water’ – the indisputably considered backbone of the blue economy.

The actualities on the ground are insanely shameful. Primarily, nothing workable is available to set the SDG-14 direction despite Pakistan having several infrastructures and hierarchies dealing with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the provincial and federal levels. They might be working very hard but nothing is visible even five years after Pakistan signed the UN SDG regime along with other 192 states in the New York summit of the United Nations to adopt the SDGs.

Have a virtual tour of the federal and provincial websites on SDGs for despair and disappointment. Millions are being spent on the guidance, advice, and monitoring of the SDGs regime for no outcome. Many SDGs are still at ground zero including SDG-14.

Somehow we see the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) has launched several initiatives to meet the SDG-13 the Climate Action targets. Thanks to Malik Amin Aslam, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Climate Change, for his visionary leadership that enabled the ministry at least to come up with some visible initiatives to ensure the compliance of targets on SDG-13. Would it inspire Ali Haider Zaid, the federal minister for maritime affairs, and others to expedite their pace or would they keep themselves in a tug-of-war with the provinces?

Despite knowing the importance of the blue economy in many ways, one can hardly find any progress on the targets set for the SDG-14 Life Below Water. Insanely, the revised National Maritime Policy is dusting the shelves of the ministry for the last three years. It shows the actual importance and priority of the maritime affairs that include all the SDG 14 targets. If the authorities are open to suggestions, it may be recommended to urgently wipe off the dust and have a multi-stakeholder consultation on the policy in the context of SDG 14 targets besides other infrastructure and development initiatives. Then it should be tabled in the cabinet for approval sooner than later.

Sadly, marine pollution is increasing but the provincial and federal governments are totally confused over the mandate and scope of their discriminatory discretion. Ten years now, they are still confused on the helm of affairs and behaving chaotically after the 18th Amendment. Provinces were happy to have their autonomy of authority and funds but unfortunately could not cope up with their responsibilities and obligations. Maritime affairs are one of the badly suffered sectors that need sincerely taken steps immediately. I have no idea how it would be done amicably between the Centre and the provinces when they are habitual in locking their horn on every single issue to add more fuel to the hostile political environment. In such a scenario, a more professional team of development partners and relevant experts could do the needful.             

A third-party evaluation of the maritime sector would set a rational baseline for the next steps such as its strategic development. There is no public awareness and meaningful engagement of stakeholders. Hardly found any partnerships for development and scope of applied research though there are some maritime research institutes in the country. Their capacity and capabilities could help achieve the SDG 14 targets.

There is no single platform of stakeholders and partners to interact and share their thoughts, to show their trepidations and apprehensions over what is going on around the maritime affairs. No joint policy advocacy, awareness-raising and outreach initiatives, no engagement of the coastal communities – the backbone of the maritime sector. Strangely, all maritime affairs are sailing without any inclusive vision and vigorous leadership.

With a multi-stakeholder consultative webinar a week back, Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) and DTNTV have initiated a wakeup process. Let’s see how it works to productively assemble stakeholders and development partners to contribute more efficiently to pave a path for integrated solutions for the maritime sector, and to the SDG 14 – Life Below Water.

We have three ports and a 1050 km long coastal belt to benefit from the blessings of the ocean but have no adequate policy and action plan to harness the benefits. More than 3000 million gallons of untreated wastewater is drained to the ocean. It has caused severe sea pollution damaging the fisheries. European Union has banned the import of fish from Pakistan resulting in one-sixth of the catch goes to the poultry feed and part of it consumed locally.

Certainly, we need to take immediate steps to stop plastic pollution and the flow of untreated liquid waste to the sea. We have defined parameters to check the oil pollution from the visiting ships and those we break in the shipyard. But SOPs are hardly implemented in letter and spirit. Huge is the agenda of revamping the maritime affairs that are not possible without establishing horizontal and vertical multi-faceted and multi-stakeholder partnerships for coordinated efforts to achieve meaningful progress on SDGs 14.