LHC seeks record of Houbara bustard hunting permits

LAHORE:

Last week, the Lahore High Court (LHC) sought records of houbara bustard hunting permits issued previously to foreign dignitaries.

During the hearing, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the LHC had expressed displeasure over the non-submission of details about the permits. The hearing was then adjourned till April 17. Justice Shah was hearing a petition filed by Naeem Sadiq, a resident of Karachi. The petitioner said that the hunting permits issued by the government were in violation of the Punjab Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) (Amendment) Act, 2007. Earlier, a two-member Supreme Court(SC) bench had declared illegal the permits issued by the government allowing hunting of houbara bustard and a notification issuedby the Forests and Wildlife Department of Sindh, dated October 21, 2014, that took away the protected status of the houbara bustard. According to the judgment, the global population of Houbara bustard was around 78,960 and 97,000.

Later, the government filed review petitions against the decision before a five member bench of the SC. The bench was headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and comprising Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and Justice Qazi Faez Isa. On January 22, 2016, it allowed the review petitions and dismissed the judgment of the two-member bench.

Koh-i-Noor

Last week, the LHC directed the federal government to file its reply by April 10 on a petition seeking the return of the Koh-i-Noor diamond from the UK.

Justice Khalid Mahmood of the LHC issued the order after accepting a request by the government seeking more time to file the reply.

The court was hearing a petition filedby Advocate Javed Iqbal Jaffery. Appearing before the court, he argued that the Koh-i-Noor belonged to Pakistan.

“The diamondwas taken from the territory that later became Pakistan. The diamond was acquired by Britain in 1849 when the East India Company annexed the Punjab. The jewel, once the largest known diamond in the world, is set in a crown last worn by the late Queen Mother during her coronation,” he said.

Jaffery has named the British queen and the British High Commission in Islamabad as respondents in his petition.

He said that Britain “forcibly and under duress” stole the diamond from Duleep Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh.

He requested the court to issue directions to the government to bring back the diamond from UK.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2016.