Pak allows Saudi Prince to hunt endangered bird spices

The Pakistan government has allowed a Saudi Prince to hunt the rare Houbara Bustard in Baluchistan despite the provincial High Court cancelling all foreign permits to hunt the endangered bird species.
Saifullah Zehri, district forest officer for wildlife in Chagai confirmed that two advance parties of Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan Abdulaziz Al Saud had reached the Yak Much desert area in the district yesterday. The Prince is expected to join the group in coming days.
"They landed at the Dalbandin airport on Sunday on a C-130 Transport plane with all necessary equipment and falcons which are used to snare the Houbara Busturds," he said.

The Baluchistan High Court had issued the ban orders last November after it was reported that foreign hunting parties had killed around 2,100 of the rare species in one year alone.
Houbara Busturds are listed as "vulnerable" and "declining in numbers" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" of threatened species.
Although, hunting them is banned in Pakistan but from time to time the government had allowed royal family members from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE states to visit and carry out hunting missions on special permits.

According to conservative estimates, between 5,00,000 and a million birds of all species migrate through Pakistan each year - flying south from Siberia to pass the winter in Central and South Asia.

Zehri said he had informed the local representatives of the Prince about the special permits and hunting being banned by the court.
"That is the most I can do, the rest is up to my superiors," he added.
Last year, the District Forest Officer of Chagai, Jaffer Baluch had reported the hunting by the Prince and his party, and was than transferred first to Wushuk and then to Sibi in the province.
"There is nothing these officers can do as the special permits are only issued on orders from Islamabad," a source in the provincial government said.
He said the people of the province also didn't object much because the royal family members also did carry out lot of welfare work in many districts of the province.