ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday issued notice to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman for allowing the import of endangered species of animals, particularly, elephants.

A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued the notices, after hearing the petition moved by the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society through counsel, Muhammad Ali Raza advocate.

The IHC bench also issued notices to the secretary, Ministry of Climate Change. It further directed the secretary, Ministry of Climate Change and the FBR chairman to nominate authorised representatives to appear on September 28 for assistance.

The court directed the FBR to ensure that import of elephants is not allowed in violation of the Act of 2012 read with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the conditions prescribed under the Import Control Act, 2020.

In the petition, the Society invoked the constitutional jurisdiction of the court under Article 199 of the Constitution 1973 seeking a direction to the federal government to fulfill its obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Pakistan Trade Control of Wild Fauna and Flora Act, 2012.

The counsel contended that the federal government has failed to make the Act of 2012 operational. He stressed that because of the delay in making the aforementioned enforced law operational, the international commitments of the State of Pakistan under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora are likely to be breached.

He, therefore, stressed that it is not in public interest to allow import of endangered species of animals in violation of the international commitments of the State of Pakistan, particularly, the elephants. After hearing the arguments, the IHC bench issued notice to the respondent for filing report and para-wise comments.

It added that since the FBR regulates all the imports into Pakistan; therefore, it is impleaded as one of the respondents, ie, respondent no 2 and the office is directed to issue notice to the chairman FBR for filing a report and para-wise comments, wherein, the latter shall, inter-alia, explain how import of elephants is being allowed in violation of the Act of 2012 and the international commitments under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021