Hobbling the hunters

For decades, hunters from the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East have come to Pakistan and laid waste to the wildlife. The unlucky Houbara bustard, an endangered migratory bird, has suffered particularly badly. The hapless Houbara is (wrongly) believed to possess aphrodisiac properties and dies in thousands as wealthy visitors seek to pump up their libido. In a rare instance of government actually listening to an aggrieved and annoyed populace, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has now issued a remarkably robust set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for foreign delegations, as well as their often numerous accompanying staff, who visit Pakistan to hunt.

It is now a requirement that advance information about the composition of visiting parties be submitted a week in advance to all the relevant departments of the foreign affairs ministry. It is rare that the creation of a bureaucratic quagmire be celebrated but we are prepared to make an exception in this instance. The arrival of ‘dignitaries’ which presumably includes royalty both major and minor as well as VIPs; must be submitted 72 hours in advance. The airfields and landing strips where these personages arrive must also be notified in order that the FIA and the ANF are ready and primed to provide the facilities of ‘immigration, customs and security.’ No aircraft will be allowed to land without the clearance of the interior ministry. The FIA and the ANF will be expected to exercise due diligence in respect of the control of our national borders. Visitors are already required to obtain a visa if they are visiting Pakistan and the new SOPs tighten up a lax security regime.

It is to be hoped that these moves are a precursor to the denial of all hunting permits for endangered species, no matter how exalted the applicant may be or their country of origin. There is widespread public support for such a move and it is time to put a stop to an invidious practice that taints the image of Pakistan internationally.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2017.

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