A Pakistani boat builder who says he is the “sole manufacturer” in the last ten years of Pakistani dhows exported to Dubai has said he is looking for more international orders to keep his business going amid a massive decline in the boat building industry in Pakistan, Arab News reported. A dhow is a lateen-rigged ship with one or two masts, used chiefly in the Arabian region. Historians speculate dhows were either invented by Arabs or Indians and were originally fishing or trading vessels used mostly to carry slaves, fruit, fresh water and other goods along the coasts of Arab countries and East Africa as well as the regions that now form Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Today, dhow cruises have become popular tourist attractions in coastal cities of the Arabian Peninsula like Dubai, Muscat and Doha, offering food, music and dance shows, and the opportunity to view skylines from the water. “We are the sole manufacturers of dhows in Pakistan for Dubai for the last 10 years and so far, we have made five luxury boats, all for Dubai, and another one is under construction at the yard,” Hajji Ismail Qadri, chairman of Qadri Boat and Cruise Manufacturers (QBCA), told Arab News at the Karachi Boat Building Yard, the largest in the country.
“For the first time these new dhows were made [in Pakistan] and exported,” Qadri said. “Otherwise, people in Dubai would buy old boats and convert them into dhow cruises.” He added: “I have made five dhow cruises and the last boat has been completed and will sail to Dubai in a day or two. It will raise the flag of my country high.” Qadri’s boat manufacturing facility is providing employment opportunities to around 200 workers, including skilled craftsmen and laborers, at a time when the Karachi Boat Building Yard has seen an almost 90 percent decline in business over the last five years that builders and contractors attribute to a diminishing demand for new cargo and fishing boats, a decline in the fisheries sector and a rising cost of raw materials.
Two years ago, building a boat cost Rs10 million [$35,000], while it costs Rs40 million ($141,789) today. Builders made around 200-250 boats a year until the recent past but were now producing only 10-15 vessels annually. Also, a majority of the business now involved repairing old boats rather than making new ones and while up to 10,000 workers worked at the Karachi yard in its heyday, only 2,000-2,500 were employed there today. Pakistan’s inflation rate rose to 31.4 percent year-on-year in September from 27.4 percent in August as the nation reels from high fuel and energy prices. Reforms required by a $3 billion IMF bailout, including an easing of import restrictions and a demand that subsidies be removed, have already fueled annual inflation, which rose to a record 38.0 percent in May.
Interest rates have also risen to their highest at 22 percent, and the rupee hit all-time lows in August before recovering in September. Pakistan also raised petrol and diesel prices to a record high last month. Qadri, who is also the secretary of the Boat Builders’ Association, said given the current circumstances, orders from abroad were a viable option to keep the industry going. “We are trying to get orders from abroad and, by the grace of god, we are getting work,” the boat builder said. “We have completed a dhow cruise recently, and we have two to four more orders in the pipeline. So, as we receive new orders, we are trying to keep our workers engaged and make sure they continue to earn their bread and butter.”