KARACHI: A special permit was issued by the federal government to the Governor of Tabuk, Saudi Arabian Prince Fahd bin Sultan Abdul Aziz Al Saud, to hunt the endangered houbara bustard in 2017-18, reported by a local English daily.
Prince Fahd had hunted over 2,100 houbara bustards during his three-week long safari a couple of years ago.
On January 18, the Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Mushahidullah Khan chaired the second meeting of the Houbara Bustard Endowment Fund and Migratory Birds.
He said the present government was serious to protect the houbara bustard species in Pakistan. The creation of this fund was a proof of the solid efforts, a press release said.
The participants discussed the financial rules that were set to get the approval from the board. However, many technical issues were pointed out in the financial rules.
The mechanism of the distribution of funds was missing in the rules.
A resident of the colder Central Asian region, houbara bustard avoiding harsh weather conditions in its habitat migrates every year to spend its winters in relatively warm environment in Pakistan and returns to its habitat after the winter.
Owing to the dwindling global population of houbara bustard, it is not only protected under the international conservation conventions, but its hunting is also banned under the national local wildlife protection laws, and natives are not allowed to hunt it. But the federal government issues special permits every year to the ruling elite of the Gulf States.
The special permits have been issued by the foreign ministry’s deputy chief of protocol (P&I) Naeem Iqbal Cheema through a letter and sent to the Islamabad-based Embassy of Bahrain so that these could be dispatched to the hunters residing in the tiny Gulf Island.
