KARACHI, Feb 1: At least four members of the ruling family of a Gulf state, including two brothers of its president, hunted, without permits, the internationally protected houbara bustards during the recent season, says a report.

According to highly placed sources, a report has been prepared by the Sindh Wildlife Department on the directives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Though wildlife is a provincial subject, the houbara bustard has been taken out of the jurisdiction of the provincial departments and is directly handled by the federal ministry, apparently because of the interest of the ruling families of friendly Gulf states in the bird.

The sources said that the federal government had allotted some areas to the president of the Gulf state for hunting the protected bird. But the president himself did not come for the houbara safari and his permit was used by some members of his family.

The sources said that a senior minister, who is brother of the president, hunted bustards in Nawabshah and another brother in Shahdadkot, Larkana district and some areas of Khairpur district.

A third member of the family, the report said, went on a poaching spree in Sukkur and Ghotki districts and a fourth in Sanghar district.

The sources said that the ministry had been getting reports that in some cases people other than the dignitaries in whose names the special permits had been issued, had come on the hunting mission.

The ministry, the sources said, had sought a report from the Sindh Wildlife Department and it was informed that 16 special permits for hunting in Sindh had been issued to rulers and members of the ruling families of several Gulf states and these were person-specific.

However, the report said, hunting permits were also issued to two members of the ruling family of another Gulf state, but they did not come and their permits were not used by any other person.

The sources said that the ministry planned to take up the matter with the government concerned and inform them that the special hunting permits were person-specific and must not be used by persons other than those in whose names these had been issued. Houbara bustards breed in Central Asian region, particularly in Kyzl Kum east of the Aral Sea, and migrate southwards in winter to Pakistan, crossing the Arabian peninsula and the Arabian Sea.

The sources said that after the population of the migratory bird had been wiped out from the Arabian peninsula some years ago, falconers from Gulf states started coming to Pakistan.

When the bird’s population started dwindling in Pakistan as a result of unregulated hunting, the government banned houbara hunting. However, keeping in view the interests of the ruling families of the brotherly Gulf states, a system of special permits was introduced, allowing only the permit holders to hunt the bird.