Sustainable maritime development needs coherent governance, particularly for the shipping sector, to ensure a stable maritime economy. However, maritime governance in Pakistan is considered inadequate and incoherent and thus poses a serious challenge to sustainability. The National Maritime Policy (NMP) was launched two decades ago, in 2002, to provide an overarching governance framework for long-term benefits, but it is now outdated. This study aimed at analyzing the extent to which the NMP of 2002 is coherent with provincial, national, and international obligations and addresses emerging requirements for the development of a sustainable shipping sector in Pakistan. An analytical framework based on three (03) guiding principles, seven (07) criteria, and twenty-eight (28) indicators was employed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Coherence across twenty-one (21) governing instruments was analyzed, scored (0–5), and rated on a ratio scale to represent the coherence index for each indicator. Thus, a matrix representing the coherence index score for each indicator individually and in pairwise comparison with the NMP was developed. An overall coherence index was calculated as 2.1, which shows poor coherence across governing instruments. This indicates that the NMP 2002 is unable to address emerging governance needs for sustainability issues such as climate response, pollution control, ballast water management, ecosystem conservation, social well-being, stakeholder engagement, and economic diversification, thus requiring revision to meet the challenges created by incoherent governing instruments at all levels and among segments of the maritime economy.