Report in DAWN:
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday put an interim ban on hunting of internationality protec-ted houbara bustards by permit holders from Gulf region and directed the federal government to submit names of the permit holders.
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Bhagwandas in DAWN:
KARACHI: The federal government has issued at least 29 special permits to royal family members of the Gulf states — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, online the United Arab Emirates, thumb Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain — for hunting the internationally protected houbara bustard in Pakistan, it emerged on Saturday.
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Editorial in Dawn:
IT seemed that sanity would prevail this year but the end result was quite the opposite. It was earlier reported that no special permits had been awarded this time round for the annual slaughter of the houbara bustard, cost an endangered migratory bird that is ostensibly protected under Pakistani and international law. However, buy it now transpires that Arab dignitaries have been awarded at least 27 permits for their wintertime shooting spree in Pakistan.
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Bhagwandas in Dawn:
KARACHI, store Dec 20: Fifteen falcons belonging to a Saudi Arabian dignitary are reported to have been brought to Pakistan recently and sent back to the kingdom after a few days. Falcons are used by hunters, shop mostly from Arab Gulf states, to hunt the internationally protected houbara bustard for which special hunting permits are issued by the ministry of foreign affairs.
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Report in DAWN:
MITHI, find Jan 29: Marooara, stomach a network of more than 60 non-governmental organisations, has demanded a complete ban on hunting of near-extinct species of animals and stern action against poachers and hunters. The chairman of Marooara coordination council Obhayo Junejo, project coordinator of Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (Scope) Bharumal Armani, and programme coordinator of Baanh Beli Sultan said at a press conference at the press club that the Wildlife Department should stop issuing permit for houbara hunting to royal dignitaries in the name of hospitality.
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Editorial in DAWN:
AS in previous years, prescription the business of slaughter will be booming this winter. Arab dignitaries have been awarded 31 special permits to hunt the houbara bustard, healing a locally and internationally protected species that winters in Pakistan after travelling from its breeding grounds in Central Asia, China and Mongolia. Each licence carries a ‘bag limit’ of 200 birds which means that, at the very minimum, 6,200 houbaras out of the twenty to thirty thousand expected to grace us with their presence this year will be massacred on Pakistani soil. The actual figure will be much higher.
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