October 19, 201. A meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping was held at KPT Head Office today which was attended by all the committee members as well as the Minister for Ports and Shipping Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo under the chairmanship of Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah. The agenda of the meeting was to confirm minutes of previous meeting held on 7^th September 2017, to discuss and present report on starred question number 44 moved by Dr. Arif Alvi regarding the encroachment in Chinna Creek related to KPT which was referred to the Standing Committee on 10^th August 2017, to present report of sub-committee of Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping under the Convenership of MNA Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, to take steps on the recommendations made by the Standing Committee during meeting held on 4^th May 2016 for checking the dumping of waste in sea waters and their impact on marine life. During the meeting the Committee was informed that 480 million gallons of waste is daily dumped in sea.

The report of the Sub-Committee was presented by Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani (Convener) which was endorsed/approved by the Committee. During the proceedings of the Committee meeting, the federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo also informed the members of the committee about the vigilant Port Security Force squad of KPT patrolling the encroached land and the steps that the port has taken so far to thwart the encroachment from the Chinna Creek area in line with the prevailing rules and regulations of government. With regards to the dumping of waste in sea waters, he further informed the Committee that this can be resolved through recycling of the waste falling in sea waters through various culverts of the city and work in this regard is already underway and that meetings with Governor Sindh and Chief Minister for K-IV project has taken place and that Chairman KPT Mumtaz Ali Shah has also met Governor Sindh recently in this regard.

It was decided to call all the stakeholders, the Provincial Governments of Sindh and Balochistan, Marine Fisheries Department, the departments of Fisheries and Ports in the next meeting to resolve the pollution issues amicably. Moreover, the issues pertaining to territorial waters jurisdictions will be discussed in the next meeting. It was also decided that a PAC sub-committee headed by Dr. Arif Alvi is already working on this issue and its report will be taken into consideration by the Standing Committee in its next scheduled meeting.

Besides the Minister for Maritime Affairs, Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, the MNAs Ch. Muhammad Tufail, Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan, Mehr Ishtiaque Ahmed, Ms Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Ms Shaheen Shafique, Ms Rumina Khursheed Alam, Pir Muhammad Aslam Bodhla, Mr Khalil George, Mir Amir Ali Khan Magsi, Mr. Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar, Dr. Arif Alvi (Mover) and Secretary Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Senior Officers of Ministry and KPT attended the meeting.