Falcons’ export: IHC seeks reply from foreign secretary on 10-year boy’s plea

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday has given one week to the foreign secretary (FS) to submit his report in the falcon poaching case.

During hearing, the court remarked that falcons should not be exported in violation of the law. The foreign secretary was asked to submit his report till 13th January, 2021 but failed to do so. The deputy attorney general requested the court for another week to submit his report and the court allowed it.

On January 1, a 10-year-old boy approached the IHC, seeking a ban on the hunting of falcons and other precious birds in the country. Petitioners had requested the court that hunting should be banned and no one should be allowed to hunt these birds.

Falcons are often used by wealthy hunting parties from the Gulf, who travel to Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province every winter to catch and kill houbara bustards. An earlier ban on the sport was overturned by Pakistan’s top court.

Two hundred rare falcons were reportedly exported to a country from Pakistan earlier this year on special permission. Wildlife traffickers too catch falcons in the mountainous north, and often sell them for profit in the Gulf region, where hunting with the birds is a sport.