ISLAMABAD (May 14 2009): The United Nations has accepted Pakistan\'s claim to extend its territorial waters from 200 to 320 nautical miles, but the final decision is yet to be conveyed to the government, well-informed sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday. This was disclosed in the Federal Cabinet meeting held on May 6, with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in the chair.

The Cabinet discussed a proposal of the Ministry of Livestock and Dairy Development, titled "revision of terms and conditions of deep-sea fishing policy." When Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit was approached to ascertain the authenticity of this information, he confirmed that the UN had accepted Pakistan\'s stance on the extension of its territorial waters from 200 to 320 nautical miles. He, however, explained that the UN had set May 13, 2009 deadline for the relevant countries to file their objections, if they have any.

"The UN has conceded Pakistan\'s claim to extension of its territorial waters, however, this has yet to be officially confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," the sources quoted the Prime Minister as revealing to the Cabinet. The Prime Minister, the sources said, directed the concerned ministries to give wide publicity to this development, besides reflecting it in the revised fishing policy.

It was also emphasised that seismic survey of territorial waters through local expertise should be urgently concluded so that commercial exploitation of resources available in that area could be undertaken to augment national productivity, the sources added.

Pursuant to Pakistan\'s Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1976, the government of Pakistan issued a notification on August 29, 1996, specifying the co-ordinates of points for the drawing of straight baselines from which all maritime zones of Pakistan are measured.

In a note verbale on February 24, 1997, addressed to the legal counsel of the United Nations, India stated that "while the government of India reserves its right to seek suitable revision of the baselines as notified by Pakistan insofar as they impinge upon India\'s sovereign jurisdiction, the government of India unequivocally rejects as unacceptable the co-ordinate point (k) 23 33.90 N 68 07.80 E referred to in the notification, as it encroaches upon the territorial waters of India, which are within its sovereign jurisdiction."

In addition, on May 22, 2001, India stated that, in its view, certain baseline points notified by the government of Pakistan were inconsistent with the international law and the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982, and reserved its rights and rights of its nationals in that regard.

"India noted, among other things, that, notwithstanding the fact that the Pakistani coastline is quite smooth, is rarely deeply indented or fringed by islands, Pakistan had employed straight baselines along its entire coastline and that the appropriate baseline for Pakistan\'s entire coast should be the normal baseline, ie the low-water line.

In addition, India protested some of the points used for establishing the straight baseline system of Pakistan, and rejected any claim Pakistan would make on the basis of the notification of August 29, 1996. With regard to deep-sea fishing policy, the Cabinet was informed that the policy was amended in September 2001 during a presentation made by the Advisor on Food and Agriculture to the then Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf.

Certain factors were mentioned to explain why the objectives of the amendments could not be achieved. Review of the matter by the stakeholders and inter-ministerial scrutiny committee had led to adoption of agreed recommendations, which were presented before the Cabinet.

It was explained to the Cabinet that the proposed changes were expected to bridge the yield gap through increased productivity, increased investment, increased foreign exchange earnings and would also rationalise fee structure, vis-à-vis neighbouring countries.

Musharraf government had approved "buffer zone" of eight nautical miles, between 12 and 20 nautical miles from the coastline, aimed at providing exclusive fishing rights to small-scale fishermen in the specified area. "The Ministry of Livestock had recommended that royalty and licence fee should be reverted to the position of 1995 policy, besides declaring the Federal area between 12-20 nautical miles (buffer zone) as Zone-II and from 20 to 200 nautical miles as Zone-III.

The main reasons for the failure of Musharraf-backed deep-sea fishing policy are poor response from foreign vessel operators due to high royalty, licence fee etc as compared to neighbouring countries, unprecedented increase in the price of fuel, sizeable reduction in the annual foreign exchange earning from Rs 80 million to Rs 40 million, reduction in other government revenues from Rs 90 million to Rs 37 million annually and considerable decrease in the annual fish landings from 15,000 metric tonnes to 3,000 metric tonnes from the Federal waters due to fishing by small number of vessels.

The sources said the Cabinet had approved revision of terms and conditions of the deep-sea fishing policy subject to the condition that the limits of zones would be re-defined in the light of UN\'s recent approval to the extension of Pakistan\'s territorial waters.