Rare falcons taken out of country

Monday, 21 Dec, 2009

The rare houbara bustard continues to face deadly threats from poachers.

KARACHI: Fifteen falcons belonging to a Saudi Arabian dignitary are reported to have been brought to Pakistan recently and sent back to the kingdom after a few days. Falcons are used by hunters, mostly from Arab Gulf states, to hunt the internationally protected houbara bustard for which special hunting permits are issued by the ministry of foreign affairs.

But according to senior government officials, no hunting permit has so far been issued for this season. The fact is that the falcons were brought into the country and sent back at the beginning of the hunting season has aroused conservationists.

Informed sources said that the dignitary himself, who usually hunts in Balochistan, did not come to Pakistan or even if he arrived he could not go for bustard hunting because no permit had been issued for the season.The sources suspect that the special system of re-export has been misused because, according to them, the falcons which were taken out were of rare and endangered species, and not the same that had been brought in, implying that in place of inferior quality falcons superior quality hunting birds were taken out of the country.

The sources said that a senior official of the ministry of foreign affairs had issued a permit which said that ‘15 falcons may temporarily be imported from the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’ by the Governor of Tabuk. The permit contained some conditions, including that ‘no falcon would be allowed to be imported for the purpose of training and that no local purchase/export of local falcons would be allowed.

The permit was issued by the ministry’s Islamabad-based deputy chief of protocol. Subsequently, the ministry’s Karachi-based deputy chief of protocol said in a communication to the Saudi consulate general in the city and customs authorities at Jinnah International Airport that ‘permission of temporary import of 15 falcons’ by the party of the Governor of Tabuk from the approved quota of 15 falcons, had been issued by the ministry and, therefore, ‘the import of 15 falcons may please be allowed.’

The falcons were imported and a few days later, the sources said, a Karachi-based senior official of the Saudi embassy sent a letter to customs authorities at the Karachi airport informing them about ‘re-export of the falcons.’

The letter referred to the foreign ministry’s permission under which the falcons belonging to the Governor of Tabuk had been imported from Saudi Arabia and said that the birds were now being sent back to Saudi Arabia by a special flight, accompanied by Musfir Al-Khatani, holding Saudi passport No: 1254467 and Fazal Khan, Pakistani passport No: AM4118291. ‘It is requested that clearance of above 15 falcons may kindly be facilitated on departure,’ the letter said.

Responding to Dawn queries, the Islamabad-based deputy chief of protocol said that it was the responsibility of the customs authorities to check if the falcons being sent back were the same which had been brought in.

Talking to this correspondent, Karachi Customs’ Collector Fateh Mohammad Shaikh conceded that his staff at the airport did not have the expertise to tell one species of falcons from another.

The staff, he said, only checked the documents and not the birds. He said that the staff of the wildlife department had the expertise which should be used in such cases.

He also said that it was not his (customs’) responsibility to inform the wildlife department about movements of falcons. The information about the falcons of re-export had been conveyed two to three days in advance.

Responding to Dawn’s questions, Sindh Wildlife conservator Husain Bux Bhaagat said that the customs authorities did not inform the department about the falcons’ movement. Not only the falcons were not checked but even the ‘possession fees’ for the birds that had to be paid by the importers could not be collected, he said.

Balochistan’s wildlife conservator Ashfaq Ahmad told this correspondent that the falcons had been intercepted at Uthal checkpost, but the wildlife staff there allowed the movement when they saw the embassy’s papers.

And Balochistan’s chief wildlife conservator Manzoor Ahmed said that no houbara hunting permits had yet been issued by the government for the season. In the absence of a permit, he said, falcons could not be used for hunting.

He also said that his department had not issued any permission to the Saudi dignitary to bring the falcons into the province.

Responding to Dawn’s questions, NWFP’s former chief conservator Dr Mumtaz Malik said that this was not the time for falcon hunters to return to their countries. He said that hunters and their falcons usually came in November/December and returned in January/February.

He said the return of falcons at this time was unusual, particularly when the houbara hunting permits had not been issued. The only apparent reason for the falcons’ movement and their re-export at this time was that these had been brought here for changing them with superior quality birds and taking then out of the country.

This, he said, was permissible neither under local rules nor under international laws.