QUETTA: Governor of Tabuk and member of the Saudi royal family Prince Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud arrived in Dalbandin, the headquarters of Chagai district, on Sunday for hunting houbara bustard.

Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir and Adviser to the Balochistan chief minister on forest and wild-life Obaidullah Babit were scheduled to welcome the prince but they reached late at the airport. However, Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Admiral Nawaf Ahmad Al-Maliki, tribal elder Haji Ali Muhammad Notezai, Chagai district council’s chairman Dawood Khan Notezai, deputy commissioner Shihak Baloch and other senior officials were present to welcome Mr Fahd.

Official sources said that the Tabuk governor after a brief rest met the defence minister and other officials. He later left for the area allotted to him by the federal government for hunting houbara bustard, an internationally protected migratory bird who flies from Siberia to the warmer desert areas of Balochistan, Southern Punjab, Sindh and some places in Khyber Pukhtunkhawa.

The Saudi prince would spend some time in the hunting area for which he was issued a hunting licence by the foreign ministry.

Recently, Balochistan’s cabinet had barred the ministry from issuing licences to the influential Arab personalities for hunting houbara bustard without prior permission of the provincial government.

The cabinet had informed the ministry that under the 18th constitutional amendment authority to issue the licence now lay with the provincial governments.

Official sources said that the prince had his own hunting range in the Dalbandin area and comes almost every year for hunting with a big entourage.

A heavy contingent of security personnel were deployed for security of the Tabuk governor.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2018