Having attended IMC 2023 in Karachi from the 10th to the 12th, it is a great event thus taking a cue from the discussion scripting column for consideration of those at helms for good of SOE (State-Owned Enterprise). My tributes to NIMA for an excellent educative event. The state of Pakistan’s economy has been a constant subject of discussion over the past month or so in the print and electronic media and is expected to remain as such in the coming days and weeks. Numerous scholars, several former finance ministers, and many economists, all far more learned than I, have…
Author: Capt. Anwar Shah
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is Pakistan’s largest oil marketing company both by value and by volume. PSO is the nationally State Owned Enterprise (SOE) responsible for the import, storage, distribution and sale of refined petroleum products in the country. By all measures, PSO is a massive entity, one of Pakistan’s few companies with revenue streams in billions of US dollars. The size of these mind-boggling revenues makes sense when one analyzes the sheer scope of what PSO actually does. It has one of the largest (if not the largest) countrywide networks of petrol stations, providing fuel to low service delivery…
At the onset, I must state that though this article deliberates upon the importance of good governance at the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC), however, it is stressed that good governance is critical to the success of any organization regardless of its size or purpose and even more so for the numerous public sector organizations of Pakistan. The development of technologies that have dramatically cut down travel and communication times has prompted the creation of the modern and interconnected global economy as we know it today. The exponential economic growth witnessed by humanity in the last two centuries is underpinned…
In the drive to increase economic activity, the impact on nature often takes a back seat. Dredging in Pakistan is an example of such activities and their resultant side effects. Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s Green House Gases, yet it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis. In 2022, Pakistan experienced its worst flooding in decades. Entire villages were wiped out, lives were lost, and people’s homes and livelihoods were in jeopardy as a result of unprecedented rainfall. Massive storm water surges swept across a defenseless landscape, natural or otherwise, inundating about…
Pakistan mangrove cover increases dramatically in two decades Port Qasim is blessed with the best mangrove forest in Pakistan Whilst on a recent trip to the Port Qasim channel, I happened to recall that according to the data gathered by the Government of Pakistan, between 1999-2021, the vulnerable mangrove area along Pakistan’s 1,050 kilometer coastline had increased from 46,000 hectares (over a 113,000 acres) to over 200,000 hectares (over 494,000 acres). The term mangrove is said to have come to English from the Portuguese mangue or the Spanish mangle. The International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem is celebrated on 26th…
Like many aspects of Pakistan’s economy, the story of the local shipping industry has been one of disappointment and unfulfilled potential. There are quite a number of reasons why history turned out as it has. Some may say it is the Pakistani shipping industry’s lack of openness and economic inclusivity. Others will tell you the opposite, stating that our policy makers have not gone far enough to offer sufficient protection to the local industry and half-hearted attempts such as these are the reason why the industry has failed to develop. It may be worthwhile to recall that matters have not…
Growth and development has not come to Pakistan’s shipping sector naturally. In fact, for a large chunk of its history one bad turn would shortly be followed by another. An ill wind has gripped the industry for far too long. We have seen the forfeiture of sea routes to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and subsequent downsizing of the national fleet. We have seen investment by private enterprise come in droves after independence and then dry up after the nationalization policies of the seventies. Then finally we witnessed several attempts by various governments over the years trying to draft and fine…
Banking and insurance services play a vital role in the economic development of any country. International trade, commerce and industry cannot develop and function without the key role of banking and insurance. We can understand how banking developed because it provides the facility to make collective investment in viable projects. But it seems nobody is certain as to how insurance came into this world. However, most people now believe that insurance originated from the needs of the shipping world. In early days when there was no currency with universal acceptability, trade was done on the basis of barter exchange. In…
Prior to the pandemic, Pakistan’s ports handled a total trade volume of approximately 110.69 million tons during 2019. In 2020, with COVID-19 slowing the global economy, the volume dropped to 92.85 million tons, thus a difference of about 17.84 million tons or about 16.12% on the volume of 2019. Almost the entirety of the aforementioned volumes were handled by Karachi Port and Port Qasim, both situated at Karachi. Both these ports remained operational throughout the height of the pandemic, albeit with the necessary precautions, while numerous ports around the world either scaled down their operations or closed shop altogether sending…
Prior to 2020, it would have been considered unimaginable, that a virus could disrupt the global economy, sequestering billions in their homes with global productivity sinking like a stone. It has been 8 months since the previously inconceivable became an everyday reality and since then, most of the world’s population, with an estimated 5 billion + at its peak, at some point, has been under lockdown. As a result of COVID-19, in the midst of an unavoidable persistence of social distancing rules, consumer behavior may have altered permanently, which will invariably contribute towards keeping certain sectors of the economy shut.…
The respective governments in Pakistan have been making efforts for the revival of the shipping industry since the early 1990s. A number of policy and taxation incentives have been offered from time to time, however, these efforts have remained unsuccessful for a number of reasons. The primary reasons for the failure to attract the private sector are that policies have remain inconsistent and tax incentives have been offered and withdrawn repeatedly on knee-jerk decision making basis. The 1990s and early 2000s also witnessed damaging unionization of seafarers who did more harm to the shipping sector than any government could have.…
Any country, when drafting its maritime policies, is faced with a dilemma that is similar in nature to most other economic matters. These countries have to choose between a protectionist stance and adopt flag protection policies or opt for openness and inclusivity allowing all individuals who choose to enter the market, the opportunity to indulge in free competition. Although, openness and economic inclusivity clearly has merits and is largely responsible for the sustainable growth achieved by the West, it is not a one size fits all approach. Freeing up an underdeveloped market and opening it up to free market forces,…
Shipping industry is cyclical in nature, last few decades have seen immense changes. The role of IM0 has become significant so is of Port State Control. Shipping is a complex and capital intensive business, thus private entrepreneurs are shy to be induced in Pakistan, as the most has lost confidence due to nationalization in 1973. PNSC being in public sector is the only shipping line under Pak Flag making profit due to good team work. PNSC continues to strive to add more tonnage to meet strategic national needs of fuel oil. Major part of the international shipping was owned and…
[dropcap]P[/dropcap]akistan’s monthly exports volume reached an all-time high of Rs. 275,483 million in September 2013. January 2017 saw this number drop to Rs. 186,385 million whereas the number for February 2017 further declined to Rs.171,511 million. The downwards trend has followed more or less consistently in the months between September 2013 and January 2017. Naturally, this declining trend in Pakistan’s exports becomes yet more pronounced when the balance of trade is analyzed. The trade deficit that stood at Rs. 1,833 billion in fiscal 2011-12 sank to a deficit of Rs. 2,494 billion by fiscal 2015-16. One would think that the…
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]rewry Maritime Research, a shipping consultancy of international acclaim, in its Annual Review 2016 of Global Container Terminal Operators has forecast a lackluster average global growth of 2.7 percent per annum for the next five years for global container ports as the industry moves from being a growth sector to emerging as a value sector. It turns out that the only global region wherein Drewry is confident of double digit growth happened to be the South Asia region of which Pakistan is a constituent. Indeed, the annual containerized growth rate for Pakistan for the last two years has remained double…
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here has been searching query, as to why, private sector is shy to invest in Pakistan ship owning since its demise in 1973, nationalization. Serious efforts were made to induce, but failed miserably to attract entrepreneurs to shipping industry. The option in MSO 2001 for dual registry has not worked even. Pakistani private Ship Owners are operating on flag of convenience, but not willing to buy incentives offered under Pak flag. Having been associated with the industry for over five decades, I am of the opinion that Pakistan may create off shore registry as flag of convenience as some European…