SC bans Houbara hunting, cancels licenses

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday imposed a ban on hunting the endangered Houbara Bustard and ordered cancellation of the special licenses granted to foreign dignitaries to hunt the bird in Balochistan.

A three judge bench headed by Chief Justice Jawwad S Khawaja moved to ban the hunting.

During the hearing, the Attorney General argued that the Houbara was not an endangered bird.

Justice Qazi Faiz Essa responded that this did not mean the government starts issuing licenses.

CJ Khawaja also ruled that hunting of the Houbara has been declared illegal by Balochistan’s provincial government and the High Court has also given a verdict in this regard.

“The federal government could not interfere in provincial matters according to 18th amendment,” he said.

The houbara bustard is listed in the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals, also known as the Bonn Convention.

It has also been declared as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species because it has undergone rapid population declines over three decades owing to unsustainable hunting as well as habitat degradation. Pakistan is signatory to the conventions.