Centre ordered to issue NOC to import elephant

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Thursday directed the federal government to issue within 24 hours a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to import a female elephant for Lahore zoo.

At a previous hearing last month, Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti had ordered the government to issue an NOC without delay. However, the counsel of the petitioner told the court that the order had not been complied with so far. The judge expressed dismay over the situation and regretted that the courts were not supposed to do what they had been forced to do due to the bad performance of government departments. “What has been going on in the government?” the judge asked a law officer. The law officer undertook that the NOC would be issued in a day and the elephant would be imported within three months.

Justice Bhatti directed the law officer to submit a compliance report on Friday (today) about the issuance of the NOC.