Hunting games

Houbara Bustard hunting represents a grave and swift surrender of the sovereign commitments made by Pakistan

It is hunting season. Foreign ‘dignitaries’ (primarily Arab princes or heads of state) descend upon our land with pomp in their private jets to partake in the quintessential Arab sport of falconry. They are escorted to designated camps, from where they carry onwards to hunt a favourite and rare quarry — the Asian Houbara Bustard, a migratory bird that finds its way down to Balochistan from the Central Asian steppe. Federal ministers, provincial representatives and bureaucrats stand in waiting to receive princely state guests travelling on such expeditions from the Arabian Gulf.

A manifestation of soft diplomacy in response to the petro-dollars, development projects and international backing lent by old and reliable friends, you may conjecture. But then you pause and wonder: isn’t the Houbara Bustard listed as a “vulnerable species” of bird by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN)? Isn’t hunting and trade in the bird prohibited under international conventions to which Pakistan is signatory, domestic legislation, and pronouncements of the superior courts of the country? Pakistan is signatory to the Bonn Convention of 1979 and as such is obligated to undertake all measures to prevent a migratory species from becoming endangered.

The Balochistan legislature appears cognisant of the gravity of danger confronting the Houbara. The Balochistan (Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Act of 2014 promulgated last year by the provincial legislature declared the Houbara Bustard a “protected animal”, which shall not be “hunted, killed, trapped, captured, traded, possessed or kept as [a] pet”. In obvious contradiction of such declaration, the Act authorises the Balochistan government the allotment of hunting licences in “exceptional cases” at a grand fee of Rs10 million per dignitary. A problematic loophole then exists in the law, highlighting the half-hearted commitment of the provincial government to conservationist concerns.

Interestingly, however, the 29 permits issued for Houbara hunting in Balochistan in 2014 were granted by the Foreign Office. The Balochistan High Court, in November last year, unequivocally declared the allotment of these licences by the federal government as without jurisdiction, illegal and of no binding effect. In view of the provisions of the Bonn Convention and the Act, the issuance of these licences was equivalent to a “deviation from law” and a “compromise on the sovereignty” of Pakistan. It also amounted to an encroachment upon what is now the legislative domain of the province. Following the promulgation of the Eighteenth Amendment, environment and ecology (including wildlife) are now a provincial subject and wild animals found within the territorial jurisdiction of Balochistan are, pursuant to the 2014 Act, deemed to be the property of the provincial government.

In complete disregard of the court verdict, the Foreign Office continues to facilitate the hunting of the Houbara in Balochistan, going so far as sending members of the federal cabinet to the Dalbandin airport last week to receive the hunting party of Prince Fahad of Saudi Arabia. Punjab presents a similar tale of state indifference to the law. Despite the suspension of Houbara hunting licences by the Lahore High Court earlier last year, the federal government has recently issued fresh permits for the sport in Punjab for 2014-15. The federal government’s indulgence is often justified as an exceptional practice to oblige Arab dignitaries who graciously participate in welfare and development projects in the allotted hunting areas. Their logic is simple: there is no such thing as a free meal. We have to pay for the goodies coming in from the Arab Gulf. Questions of legality and ethics remain irrelevant to this cost-benefit equation.

The grand hunting event underway in Balochistan, sanctioned by the Foreign Office, is then not a benign game of diplomatic reciprocity. It, instead, represents a grave and swift surrender of the sovereign commitments made by Pakistan, a blatant violation of our laws and a complete disregard of our ecological heritage. It is the price we pay for our economic desperation and moral ambivalence.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th,  2015.

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