K & P

K-P govt fines Qatari prince for hunting falcons

PTI chairman Imran Khan says Qatari prince was fined with Rs 80,000 after he was caught with three falcons

Web Desk March 10, 2015

PHOTO: AFP

In a rare move, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Ministry of Environment fined a Qatari prince Rs80,000 after he was caught with three falcons in Dera Ismail Khan.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, who's party is the ruling party in the province, tweeted:

A Qatari prince is fined Rs 80,000 by KP Min of Environment on being caught with 3 falcons in D I Khan. Diff between Naya Pak & Old Pak.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 10, 2015

Members of the royal families of the Gulf States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are known to be enthusiastic hunters and travel to Pakistan each year to hunt the rare Houbara Bustard.

The annual hunt has sparked controversy in recent years because of the Houbara bustard’s dwindling numbers, with the issue also shining a spotlight on traditionally close ties between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Read: Saudi Royal on Houbara bustard hunting spree in Balochistan

The International Union for Conservation of Nature includes the bird on its ‘red list’ of threatened species, estimating there are fewer than 97,000 left globally.

Read: Pakistan prepares for Saudi royal to hunt Houbara bustards

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.

COMMENTS (46)

Seema | 9 years ago | Reply @Shah2u: He will never ever bother to enter KP as long as Tehrik Insaf is governing the province. If he bothered to enter again, his trained falcons worth millions of rupees will be once again confiscated and released in front of public.

Seema | 9 years ago | Reply @JD: Jailed him.... Under what authority? Under which rule of the country?

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Seema | 9 years ago | Reply @Schumaila: You are 100% right. Federal govt has asked the givt of KP to clarify as why the Qatar Sheikh has been handled this way.

Seema | 9 years ago | Reply @Pakistani: Why you want to be dependent on IMF? You need to trust yourself and the resources of your country.

Seema | 9 years ago | Reply @Shah2u: Just to clarify that penalty of Rs 80000 was to humiliate the violator of the law. The trained falcons worth millions were also confiscated by the Wildlife Department. Those falcons were later transported to Peshawar, where those were released and set free in front of students of Pakistan Forest Institute, officers of Wildlife Department and representatives of electronic media. Just to let you know that this is routine of Wildlife Department. It's not the only case of falcon confiscation by the Wildlife Department.

Seema | 9 years ago | Reply @abc: Falcon hunting is already banned, and that's why the falcons worth millions were confiscated from the Arab Sheikh. Rs 80000 was a penality to humiliate the violator of the law.

Seema | 9 years ago | Reply @SAM: Those were released by Minister Wildlife in front of students, officers of Wildlife Department and media. Why you don't appreciate the efforts of Wildlife Department staff, who had the courage to face the wrath of everyone to confiscate the birds from Emir - Qatar, who was hiding in the house, when the staff of Wildlife Department raided the house.

schumaila Khan | 9 years ago | Reply @ Maddy Khan I feel pity for ppl like who despite getting education are no less than illeterates and the likes of you who brought contractor minded Nawaz league into Power... planting trees and protecting environment to you is not a big deal? I would suggest you to get yourself admission in development studies and learn what is sustainable development why is sustainable development central to preservation n protection of environment...

MAQ | 9 years ago | Reply Rs.80,000/- fine can't hurt the pockets of these royals but may be can serve as symbolic punishment (humiliation). Next time he or any one like him should be punished more severely. little credit must be given to KPK Government for having some guts that no one else has at all .

SAM | 9 years ago | Reply I fully endorse the views expressed in comments by @Pakistani. Furthermore, would like to ask, what happened to those three falcons this prince was caught with? Rs. 80,000 is less than 1,000 Qatari Rayal, meaning nothing to the prince. The three falcons are worth millions. Was he allowed to get away with those birds? Or some official of KPK government made them disappear in some mysterious way? Replies to these questions would be highly appreciated please!

Pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply Great work my pizza eating internet warriors, you won a great battle here and have contributed millions of USD to the poor ppl of Pakistan. I am saying enforce the law but destroying Pakistan relations with another country and damaging economy by these cheap stunts is a crime. If Pakistan doesn't get next 2 payments form IMF, Pakistan will be bankrupt. WAKE UP!!!!, if you want to improve Pakistan, understand where Pakistan stands today.

Chughatta | 9 years ago | Reply He should also be banned at least for three years to enter into KPK

Maddy Khan | 9 years ago | Reply Thats all Mr Imran Khan the master of U Turn was supposed to do in New Pakistan?? Plant trees and save the environment... lol Mr prime minister should make him Environment Minister coz thats all he is doing right now. 80K fine ? even the birds cages worth more than that I will salute him if he can bring back pathan taxi drivers and labours working all over GCC to KPK and give them a decent job. But thats not gonna happen.. everyday hundreds of them fly oversease for blue collar jobs.

Prada | 9 years ago | Reply What do these uneducated, uncultured people even know about the beauty of flora and fauna?

raider | 9 years ago | Reply @Pakistani: plz shed your client mentality, we are suffering in whole world for compromising our integrity and self-respect, i would like to advise you just for experience breach a law with minor penalty in any country of the world even having with good bilateral relations like china, turkey, suidi Arabia, you will be prosecuted more vigorously for being expatriate your identity would be put aside

zafar | 9 years ago | Reply @JD: At least some did something. But no, let's criticize IK because he should have done more while we all froth nonsense against him. And if this is not enough we will vote PML-N or PPP in power again, only to cry one more time.

Ibrahim | 9 years ago | Reply @Pakistani: How Idiot are you? You Nooners can only make a fool of yourselves..

ali | 9 years ago | Reply @Pakistani: LOL. Nice display of sick and slave mentality. Pakistan can create million times more number of jobs in almost every sector the time the corrupt rulers stop ripping off the country and genuine hardworking leadership takes over. Who wants qatari seasonal jobs?? But look the corrupt rulers have made some of our naive Pakistani dollar and Riyal hungry beggers just like themselves. Anyone breaks the law should be punished. Even if he is Royal Qatari or PM of Pak or President Obama. And by the way, even if KPK govt hangs that Qatari wont make any difference. Qatar will still go after those deals because they dont have option to remove Pakistan from its geographical location and bring in the country they prefer over Pak.

Pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply @Noora Just like I said, Implement the LAW but why “the greatest leader ever born” had to make big announcements about it. He is showing off to get more votes and damaging relations with other countries. 2ndly, please correct your facts, Nepal labor minister visited Qatar last week to enhance the partnership, same for Philippines, India, Srilanka and many African nations. Please just Google last one month foreign delegation visits to Qatar and you will know. @Saif Pakistan is in this condition not because of ppl like me (at least we are trying to something) but ppl like you who are to blame. You had 67 years to utilize these resources, what have you done, now you will blame the government. Please tell us how you have contributed to optimal utilization of these resources. The only thing you ppl can do is to ridicule other ppl ideas and blame others for your condition and just TALK

Nadeem | 9 years ago | Reply Pakistan will pay more high price for LNG imports from state of Qater which will be in millions of dollers a person like Imran Khan Qataris keep in their pocket

Ahmed B | 9 years ago | Reply @Pakistani: You should be crucified for this comment! Get jobs on equal respect and footing, not let them break your laws, walk all over you, rub their feet on your face, make you grovel at their feet and then accept your labor, treat the labor worse than dogs (look at the history of gross labor abuses by these GCC countries to Pakistani workers, it's absolutely appalling!). No one had the guts to stand up to these people. Get respect, so later you can get them to observe human rights when it comes to your people. Stop living in the short term. Vision is long term. Lastly, if anything control the damn population so there are more per person in the country. Oh and the fine is as per the rules, it's not about money, it's more symbolic.

Dayum | 9 years ago | Reply Well done IK, Well done!

A. Haleem Khan | 9 years ago | Reply Its not the Khan Sahib desire, rather its our responsibility to conserve our natural heritage. we are doing in the field of Falcons and Now we are following ban on Cranes and we are fully and even forcefully banned the cranes hunting and we are following the same....

farooq | 9 years ago | Reply Great act of courage....no compromise on our national assets.....

noora | 9 years ago | Reply @ pakistani applause for you bro, so what is boundary here, a pakistani cant hunt but a QATARI PRINCE can hunt in pakistan. next time they will rape a daughter of motherland u will have the same pathetic logic. clearly you have assumed that pakistan wont generate any jobs in the meanwhile. in addition these qataris are not giving us a favor by letting labor from pakistan to come. its favor to them , with the conditions they provide to these workers even a country like nepal is not willing to send their workers. so dun be that noora plz

Schumaila | 9 years ago | Reply I am glad to know that at least someone in Pakistan has the guts to stand up to these Arab spoil brats. Well done IK and the KP government.. we may see Nawaz Shareef apologizing to them on KP government's treatment.

smalee | 9 years ago | Reply AoA, Soon we would get the news, that LNG contract with Qatar is no more :) We need to think and decide about our country and our national interests. I fully support IK act. Now a Big test for PML(N) to tackle up coming situation.

saif | 9 years ago | Reply @PAKISTAI.. u seem to be true but why dont you think the other way round. why u only think of these country to give us jobs, why dont u forget that we can provide much better jobs & opertunities if we just stand like this guy Ik? we have much more resources than these arab stoogs but still we bag them because we have people like u who dont think to rule rather than to be ruled.

IY | 9 years ago | Reply Its not the amount but the implementation of law of the land is what matters. The law must be the same for all. Be it a prince or a beggar. It seems that the KP govt has implemented the law to its fullest. Most importantly for the Qatari prince, its the humiliation that is the real punishment.

Realist | 9 years ago | Reply The question is, did he actually pay the fine?

Anonymous | 9 years ago | Reply Rs. 80,000/- ... huh ...These princes gift cars worth of millions of rupees to their hosts before returning to their palaces ...

Pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply I know i will be crucified for this but here it goes. I am all up for implementing the LAW but putting such news about a royal on your twitter account is hypocrisy. Why didn't he put news about any other Law enforcement action in KP. Even children know what to share with whom and how. Lets talk some numbers to understand how much damage Khan did in this stunt of his. Qatar will generate 4 Million jobs in next 10 years due to Football world cup 2022. Philippines government just signed a MOU for get 200,000 job in Qatar, just in next 2 years. Nepal Government has signed "Visa on Arrival" policy for their labors to work in Qatar. lets not talk about Indians, 25% of Qatar population is from India. These are just jobs, imagine Qatar imports over next 8-10 years, Pakistan is the ideal location/country to provide them everything they need for the World Cup and giving Pakistan economy much needed boost. However, Pakistan government is not where to be seen. Above that, our great visionary leader Khan Sb is making sure that Pakistan gets no share of this huge market. Great Work Khan Sb, you just gave Pakistan Economy a huge blow and deprived at least 200,000 Pakistanis a great job opportunity.

Shah2u | 9 years ago | Reply Rs 80,000/- fine on Qatari? Is this a kind of a joke or what? He's surely to be back next year.

Syed Ali | 9 years ago | Reply This is true tabdeeli!

not too true | 9 years ago | Reply @Rex Minor: ouch bit harsh...but sounds good

Ali-Dubai | 9 years ago | Reply I would consider it first drop of rain to protect our wild life. As our Prime minister is the puppet of Saudi Govt.

Imad | 9 years ago | Reply Well done, Imran Khan, today you made us proud. Because all we have been hearing before was how these princes were killing our birds but the Punjabi Authorities where tootless in stopping them. Extremely proud of Pataans for giving you the opportunity to govern. Respect

AAB | 9 years ago | Reply Amount of fine doesn't matter but humiliation and care any royal will take in future Thumbs up

Rex Minor | 9 years ago | Reply @JD: I agree! The so called Prince should be made to serve in a charity house for a week instead of asking him to pay a cash fine. Rex Minor

Amin Ansari | 9 years ago | Reply @Usman: Fully agree Usman.

Bilal | 9 years ago | Reply Well done .. I hope south punjab also implements rules and protects our env

abc | 9 years ago | Reply The amount fined is not worth, the govt must ban such hunting in the future.

Ebaad | 9 years ago | Reply Just imagine Nawaz Government doing the same to these royals.

JD | 9 years ago | Reply Well done, KP Government

JD | 9 years ago | Reply 80.000 rupees is peanuts for this guy. You should have jailed him and let him enjoy pakistani hospitality in a jail.

Usman | 9 years ago | Reply What do the liberals always frothing at Imran Khan have to say about this? It's time the civil society unite with the only mainstream politician who's actually from the civil society.

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