Law Enforcement within Maritime Zones of Pakistan: Impediments, Opportunities and Way Forward

Abstract

Oceans are prime geographical entities holding massive volumes of activities including transport of food and nutrition, trade and commerce, communication, and exploration and exploitation of natural resources. There is enormous reliance of states on all these maritime activities. Pakistan, being a significant coastal state of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has vast areas as its maritime zones including continental shelf. It is Pakistan’s responsibility to ensure law enforcement in order to promote safe navigation and other economic activities. The identification of variables underpinning maritime security in these zones of Pakistan and discussing the gaps in law enforcement as a steady challenge provide this research relevance with the cotemporary era requirements and implementation challenges. This research has been substantiated with the conceptual framework established on the ground of Hobbesian Social Contract Theory and the Agency-Structure approach. Therefore, this research is conferring upon existing maritime laws with the purpose to deal with the gaps and to find solutions to challenges in maritime zones of Pakistan by including social factions to ensure inclusiveness and enhanced efficacy. The research undertaken is qualitative and explanatory, directed at suggestions for better policy making and implementation. The data for the research has been collected through primary, secondary and tertiary sources, in which primary data utilized for this study is based on official, open- source documents, and discussions with practitioners and stakeholders. Secondary data has been collected from academic books, research papers, reports, and newspapers, and tertiary data used for the work undertaken relies on electronic sources.