KARACHI, Dec 22: Balloting for award of Ibex trophy-hunting permits was held by the Sindh Wildlife Management Board here on Saturday.

The board had invited applications for 10 permits — five for Pakistanis and five for foreigners. The fee was Rs25,000 for hunters from Sindh, Rs50,000 for those coming from other provinces and $5,000 for foreigners. The permits are nontransferable.

The five permits reserved for foreigners were also given to Pakistanis as not a single foreigners applied. There were 16 applicants — 14 from Sindh and two from other provinces.

The board later decided to give two permits to Mohammad Khan Hoti (NWFP) and Reza Ali Muneer (Punjab) who paid more money (Rs50,000). Mohammad Khan Hoti is a board member.

He had applied for permit from Sindh, but knowing that balloting would be held as more hunters had applied than the number of permits available he changed his status and applied from the NWFP. He paid Rs50,000 to get the permit without balloting. At the same time the board also increased the number of permits from 10 to 12 so that others would not feel deprived owing to award of two permits without balloting.

The other hunters whose names were drawn in the balloting on Saturday are Riaz Ahmad, Ahaid Hassan Mahmood, Umer Saeed, Ahmad Sultan, Ghulam Mustapha Shah, Nadir Khoso, Naveed Mohammad Javeri, Maqbool Rahimtoola, Haroon Paracha and Salim Adil.

A former senator and board member, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah Jamote, who presided over the balloting, told Dawn that the permit fee was kept low as compared to the amount last year, so that even those who could not afford the high cost could participate.

When asked why a board member was allowed to change his status (from Sindh to NWFP) after the due date, Mr Jamote said that earlier the board members had the right to hunt without any fee but this board had done away with it, and allowing a board member to change his status was a small thing and not a big issue.