KARACHI: Shortage of pilots in Port Qasim Authority (PQA) is causing delays in shipping, cancellation, misbehaving of pilots with ship crew and captain, misbehaving with seniors, blackmailing on lack of appropriate training and number of mishaps and accidents.

According to maritime analysts in year 2006, pilot strength of PQA was 17 including 14 license pilots and 3 senior Managerial Officers (License pilots). After ten years in 2017, team strength reduced to 14 having 10 licensed pilots and 4 senior Managerial Officers.  Presently it has a team of just five regular pilots, three contract pilots and three retired pilots making a total of 11 only. Authority has been advertising for pilots on contract basis and at moment Masters (Captain) salaries are in between $ 12,000 to $ 15,000 therefore no young candidates are available.

Analysts said that in 2017 five pilots were short of approved strength and prior to 1998 number of vessels were delayed for more than 24 hours due to non-availability of pilots although vessels were ready for sailing in all respect. Marine pilot plays vital role in quick turnaround of vessels as they move vessels through navigational channel as quickly as safely possible for protection of environment, safety of life and Port infrastructure.

Pilotage service is essentially safety service of which efficiency is major part. An experienced pilot will bring an arriving ship safely to its berth in a far shorter time than an inexperienced master with little knowledge of port and its procedures could possibly do. With running costs of modern ships within port limits in order of $ 3,000 to $ 4,000 per hour, saving of just one hour in turnaround time more than pays pilots’ wages. This is just one example of how safety service can provide substantial financial benefits.

Six years back experts in PQA taking into view future projects, significantly increase in traffic, harsh environmental conditions, tight berthing/un-berthing schedules due to limited tidal slots, to avoid cancellation of vessels, large deeply laden vessels, fatigued due to shortage of pilots and age of pilots, had emphasised Marine Operation Department importance for induction of pilots at earliest in interest of uninterrupted, smooth and safe operation of shipping at Port Qasim. They had urged that pilots need to be inducted at earliest to avoid delays in sailing of vessels (Ready to sail in all respect) for more than 24 hours as was case prior to 1998 due to shortage of pilots). If early action was not taken in this regard Port and Terminals will head for huge financial loss, in fact, it will be an irreparable loss to country, they said.

However, Port management did not bother to pay heed to these suggestions. At that time Port Qasim being backbone of country was catering to 40 percent of seaborne traffic, any delays in port operation did significantly influence Pakistan’s economy, reduction in export/ import of cargo resulting in inflation, financial losses and higher cost on to consumers.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 27 2022

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