Having miserably failed to protect their minorities, perhaps, Pakistani can at least take a stand for Houbaras
KARACHI: The wildlife department in Pakistan is famous neither for high scruples nor for good eyesight. Jaffer Baloch from this department, however, is a rare exception. He blew the whistle on a prince belonging to the royal family of a Gulf state, who killed 2,100 Houbaras in January 2014 in Chaghi district of Balochistan. The prince was using fake permits, illegally issued by the foreign ministry of Pakistan — a ministry not authorised to do so. Instead of being rewarded, Baloch was punished and transferred from his post.
The peaceful birds are back as our winter guests. Little do they know that their hosts are playing a double game and have surreptitiously invited Arab predators. The Sindh Wildlife Department has reported that a hunting party led by another Arab sheikh from the same Gulf state has been carrying out hunting in Jati tehsil of Thatta district for the past few weeks. The department also confirmed that another hunting party led by yet another Arab sheikh was carrying out hunting in the Jhangri area of Jamshoro district. The wildlife department does not have the courage to demand hunting permits from these Arab sheikhs. On asking his seniors, the officer responsible for Thatta and Jamshoro was informed that the permits had arrived at the Sindh Wildlife secretary’s office and would reach his office in ‘due course’.
There are only two possibilities. Either the Arab sheikhs are plundering and poaching our birds illegally or our mindless and obsequious foreign ministry is back to its old tricks of fabricating fraudulent permits. In the first case, the Arab sheikhs should be put behind bars. Alternately, this honour must go to the senior-most officials of our foreign ministry. Having miserably failed to protect their minorities, perhaps, the citizens of Pakistan could at least take a stand on behalf of the endangered Houbaras before they, too, are ushered into the kilns of greed.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2014.
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