Minister for ports and shipping, Babar Khan Ghauri, has vowed to shore up those Pakistani seamen who according to a news broken by Geo have been detained on a foreign vessel anchored at an Indian port for the last four months.

 

“We are in talks with the Indian authorities and hopefully Pakistani sailors will be pulled through before long”, Ghauri said talking to Geo News.Ghauri said he has directed the Director General Ports and Shipping to jump into action.We have also contacted the family members of the mariners under ship-arrest and assured them of all-out help”, the minister said Reports have it that Indian authorities had seized a ship owned by a Bangladeshi national after it defaulted on port payments last yearlearnt that the seafaring vessel had berthed at Visakhapatnam Port, which is the only major port of Andhra Pradesh, on November 4, 2012, where it remains tied up to date.

According to the second officer of the vessel, all the crew has been confined to the ship for the last four months.“We are not allowed to go on shore. On top of having to put up with inhuman living conditions, scarcity of food supplies, and shortage of water on board, the seamen were also not paid for the past half-a-year”, he said.

The officer also revealed that they have only been consuming a dish of rice and pulses since the seizure of their ship."Stomaching the same food over and over again is sickening the crew members", the second officer added.It is pertinent to mention that there are five Pakistanis among the crew.Three of the five seamen are the residents Karachi.