India, Nov. 26 -- Across the busy shipping lanes of the Arabian Sea, a parallel maritime world moves almost invisibly. Hundreds of Pakistani wooden dhows-unregistered, untracked and often carrying fraudulent paperwork-sail through international waters without Automatic Identification System transponders. They function with recycled fishing licences or none at all. What appears at first glance to be a loose collection of rogue vessels is in fact the product of a deeper institutional collapse in Pakistan's maritime governance, one that feeds fuel smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and unchecked human movement across the region.

Pakistan's vessel registration system is fractured at every major point of responsibility.

The Mercantile Marine ...