ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has asked federal and provincial governments to come up with responses to a petition which seeks cancellation of licences and permits given to foreign VIPs for hunting the endangered hubara bustard.
A three-judge bench of the court headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja has issued notices to Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt and law officers of the four provincial governments for the last week of this month to proceed on a petition filed by Advocate Raja Muhammad Farooq on behalf of Aamir Zahoor-ul-Haq.
Among the respondents named in the petition are the foreign and environment ministries, chief secretaries of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and secretaries of the forestry and wildlife departments.
The petition recalled that Pakistan had imposed a permanent ban on the hunting of houbara bustards under the Third Schedule of the Pakistan Wildlife Ordinance 1971, after declaring the species a protected bird.
But despite the ban, licences or permits were being issued to VIP dignitaries of the Gulf States for hunting the species.
