AAJ TV : Pakistan Ki Awaz

KARACHI : Pakistan Navy (PN) has suggested the government to establish a joint maritime security agency with India to avoid Mumbai-like terrorist attacks. This was stated by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir, while talking to the media, after opening an international conference on "Piracy on the High Seas," organised by Master Mariners Society of Pakistan (MMSP), here at a hotel on Monday.

The daylong conference was addressed by local and foreign marine experts, who underlined the need for concerted efforts of the international community to curb piracy in the high seas. According to them this menace had intensified to the extent that during the short span of six months, January to June 2009, pirates hijacked some 33 vessels in at least 140 attacks across the globe in the open seas.

The Naval Chief said Pakistan had always been adhered to the international defence treaties and had, therefore, satisfactorily allayed Washington's concerns over harpoon missiles. To a query, he said soon after Mumbai attacks PN had proposed to the government to set up a maritime security force comprising personnel from the two countries. Earlier, Admiral Noman told the conference that pirates were posing a great danger to the world's trade, at least 90 percent of which was carried through the sea routes.

Highlighting the role of PN in anti-piracy drive in Somalia, the Naval Chief said it was a moral and collective obligation of the nation states to guard their respective territorial waters to ensure safety of seaborne trade. In his welcome address, MMSP President Captain Haleem Ahmed Siddiqui told the gathering that the recent years had witnessed a great intensity in sea piracy that had badly affected almost all the mariners and coastal states.

According to him during first six months of the current year there had been 140 pirate attacks, in which some 33 ships were hijacked and around 106 such attempts were foiled. He said the seminar was aimed at educating the concerned quarters on state-of-the-art equipment and the anti-piracy measures to check the menace.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009