Save the birds: Protesters seek end to ban on houbara bustard hunting

BAHAWALPUR:

Scores of people rallied in Liaqatpur on Sunday demanding an immediate end to the ban on houbara bustard hunting in Cholistan.

The rally started at Qayyum Petroleum Company and ended at Ghanta Ghar Chowk.

The participants raised slogans in support of allowing licensed hunting of the birds and of enduring relations between Pakistan and the UAE. Anjuman-i-Tajiraan president Rashid Rafique Chaudhry said scores of UAE citizens had been visiting Cholistan every year for several years to hunt houbara bustards. He said the ban could endanger jobs of Pakistanis working in the UAE. He said completion of several development projects underway in Rahim Yar Khan with support from the UAE government could also be jeopardised if the ban was not lifted. Chaudhry, a former city nazim, said the two countries had enjoyed a friendly relationship.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2015.