SHIPBREAKING IN PAKISTAN – THE NEED FOR ALIGNING WITH GLOBAL INSTRUMENTS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Commander (R), Prof. Dr. Muhammad Tahir Naeem Mahmood, 
Published: March 2023

Pakistan has been the largest shipbreaking country during the 1980s and is presently among three of the largest shipbreaking countries in the world; however, shipbreaking through the beaching method has so far not been properly regulated and is evident from several incidents from time to time taken place as a result of sheer lack of consideration for health & safety of the workers and the coastal environment. Toxins in the ship’s structure are harmful residue and are extremely dangerous to natural resources and employee wellness. Notwithstanding, it is volatile in terms of adding its share to the economic growth by providing opportunities to employ and supply solid iron steel to the rolling mills to meet the demand of the country’s construction sector. Environmentalists have shown their concerns, especially over countries to the global south where the beaching method is popular for breaking down obsolete vessels. Several global instruments have been introduced to curtail bad practices bringing about environmental and health issues. It will be assessed whether existing local instruments in Pakistan are responding to these issues effectively or whether there is a need for introducing more regulations, especially sector-specific, to align the viable sector according to global regulations to be able to get the share by competing with regional competitors like India and Bangladesh.

Although in one form or another, there have been efforts on a global level to address the environmental, health, and safety issues, as several such conventions about it have taken place since 1907. The “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” (UNCLOS), the London Dumping Convention and Protocol and the World Charter for Nature. A Preservation of the Ozone Layer at the Vienna Convention on, Transboundary transfer of hazardous wastes, in particular from industrialised nations to poor or less developed countries, was prohibited under the Montreal Protocol until the Basel Convention under the United Nations Environment Program (to which Pakistan is a member) went into force in 1992. In 2002, technical rules were adopted for the ecologically responsible handling of ships’ complete and partial disassembly. In 2009, the International Maritime Organization established the Hong Kong Convention to address environmental dangers and worker safety and health., while decommissioning the ship, but so far, these global instruments in Pakistan have not been inducted in the procedures through local regulations; therefore, this study investigates industry viability on efficient administration and adherence to international law instruments being introduced by European Union Regulations and Hong Kong Convention, in an attempt to overcome the shortfall of earlier regulations under United Nations agencies. The effective implementation of existing local laws and making of sector-specific rules and regulations is highly desirable to respond to the earliest compliance gaps on the safe and environmentally sound dismantling of uneconomical ships. An analysis of the consistency of State legislation to respond to international legal instruments is recommended for the sustainable development of the ship-breaking industry in Pakistan.