The Peshawar High Court has declared the inquiry and proceedings initiated by the Anti-Corruption Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the use of funds for Markhor trophy hunting in Chitral illegal and ruled that the local community has an exclusive right to 80 percent of the income generated from hunting Markhor and Ibex.
Justice Muhammad Fahim Wali issued a detailed 12-page decision, in which the applications of 12 Village Conservation Committees (VCCs) were accepted. The court termed the anti-corruption action as an abuse of powers and undue interference in the functioning of the conservation committees.
The judgment clarified that as per the government notification, 80 percent of the proceeds from trophy hunting are for the welfare and development of the local population, and the community has full authority to use this fund.
The court remarked that preventing local people from using the funds is against the spirit of the wildlife conservation scheme. The petitioners’ lawyers, Ghufranullah Shah Advocate and Abdul Basit Advocate, took the position in the court and said Local people do not harvest crops on their lands just so that the Markhors that come down from the mountains in winter can use them as food.
The share received from trophy hunting is the only major source of income for the people of these poor areas, which they spend on development projects. Anti-Corruption had taken the position that the committees can only withdraw the interest received on the funds, not the actual amount. However, the court rejected this position in light of the Chief Conservator of Wildlife’s report, which acknowledged that the community was entitled to 80 percent of the money.
