LAHORE, April 19: People’s Party MPA from Rawalpindi Raja Shafqat Abbasi has submitted a bill with the Punjab Assembly secretariat for minimising discretionary powers of game wardens for effectively preserving wildlife and nature.

The Punjab Wildlife (protection, preservation, conservation and management) (amendment) bill seeks setting up of a board comprising three MPAs, two from the treasury and one from the opposition benches to be nominated by the speaker, for supervising grant of licence/permit for hunting by the government or its functionaries.

Mr Abbasi told Dawn on Wednesday that there were 72 endangered species of animals and birds in the third schedule of the Wildlife Act 1974 but the government officials under their discretionary powers used to grant licenses even for hunting these species in special cases like for some princes from Gulf states.

The bill aimed at curtailing these discretionary powers by shifting the authority to the supervisory board and asking the board to submit its report to the provincial assembly twice a year, he said.

It also required to enhance the magnitude of punishment for violators from two years’ jail term and Rs2,000 fine to five years imprisonment with Rs20,000 fine, he added.

The proposed law, if passed by the house, would authorise every citizen to register a case against violators of the hunting ban, Mr Abbasi said.

So far only game wardens, officials of the wildlife department, can register a case against violators.

The existing law, the MPA said, lacked proper monitoring or checking while granting licenses or permits for hunting.

The government and its officials under this Act would exercise their powers in arbitrary manner prejudicial to the interest of wildlife, he said.

Permit holders, Mr Abbasi said, often misused the permission by hunting the prohibited animals throughout the year, resultantly there was great threat to the endangered animals.

The practice was bringing a bad name to the country as well as the province as Pakistan is signatory to various international conventions which deal with these species, he concluded.