Pakistan plans Karachi to Muscat ferry service

Muscat: A ferry service between Oman and Pakistan increasingly looks like a possibility.

If things go as planned, Pakistan will start a ferry service to Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Iran soon. An international ferry policy is likely to be announced by Pakistan’s Federal Ministry of Ports and Shipping this week.

Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, federal minister for Ports and Shipping was quoted by the Pakistani media as saying last week that the government of Pakistan would introduce its international ferry policy to boost maritime trade, as well as attract investment to its shipping industry.

The proposed ferry service, the minister said, would run on the Karachi-Muscat-Chabahar-Dubai route. This would attract foreign investment, he said, urging businessmen to invest in the shipping industry.

“This is a very important area for bilateral relations and certain proposals have been under consideration for some time. Such projects have a certain financial undertaking. Once we are through with those assessments, this ferry service can then start,” Ali Javed, ambassador of Pakistan to Oman said in a chat with the Times of Oman yesterday.

More details will come to light after the policy announcement.

Maritime trade has always been on the agenda and both Oman and Pakistan had come close to announcing the start of a ferry service between Muscat and Gwadar in 2010 when the then Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited the Sultanate.

The project was then delayed as certain financial modalities could not be settled.

“Transportation is directly linked to the promotion of trade and people-to-people contact. Projects, such as the ferry service, facilitate such interaction. Oman and Pakistan are already very well connected by air through Oman Air; three Pakistani airline—PIA, Shaheen Air and Air Blue—operate on various routes between the two countries. Therefore, connectivity of ports through various means, including the ferry service, shall remain our desire,” added the ambassador.