Slaughter at Machiara

Edit in The Dawn, Oct 30
TUESDAY’S slaughter at Machiara National Park in Azad Kashmir must not go unnoticed. After spending the night as guests of a forest department official, a group of politically powerful people went on the rampage in a wildlife park that is protected under local and international law. Gunshots were heard throughout the day, according to area residents and wildlife department scouts. Machiara National Park is sponsored by the Global Environment Facility and is home to endangered and threatened species such as musk deer, ibex, horned tragopan pheasant and the snow leopard. The local community, which is involved in the park’s protection and has voluntarily renounced hunting within its boundaries, was understandably outraged. Senior officials of the MNP project have also confirmed the incident.

There is little doubt that wildlife laws were flouted with impunity at Machiara, possibly in connivance with the forest department. Be that as it may, it is unlikely that anyone will be taken to task. Part of the hunting party was Bilal Khar, son of veteran politician Ghulam Mustafa Khar and son-in-law of the new Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister. He was reportedly accompanied by the AJK PM’s brother-in-law. With so much clout at their disposal, will the perpetrators of the Machiara massacre ever be booked for illegal hunting in a country where the powerful can murder humans without paying the price?

Poaching and other forms of illegal hunting are not limited to AJK. Members of leading tribal-cum-political families were caught hunting two years ago in Sindh’s Kirthar National Park. They were let off with a nominal fine — though the fact they were even questioned was surprising in itself. Protected falcons are regularly trapped in Balochistan and the NWFP, and freshwater turtles are under siege in the Frontier and Sindh. Special permits are issued every winter to Arab dignitaries seemingly bent on exterminating the houbara bustard, an endangered migratory bird. All this must end. The special-exemption riders in our wildlife and environmental laws have to be discarded and fines replaced with jail time. Even if they are ever hauled up, money is no object for the bloodthirsty elite http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/slaughter-at-machiara-009