(PK-CN): Wildlife minister smuggling turtle meat to China?

[Guest guest]

Will China respond to this news report please?

 

The Pakistan Minister does not talk to the media neither does he sit

in his office (as the reports say).

 

Azam

 

 

 

 

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\07\17\story_17-7-2009_pg12_1

 

Friday, July 17, 2009

 

Wildlife minister smuggling turtle meat to China?

 

Text and photos by Amar Guriro

 

KARACHI: The railway police decided to conduct a raid on the Sindh

Wildlife conservator’s official vehicle. They were not disappointed so

to speak, as they discovered a heavy consignment of protected turtle

meat. The meat was dried, boneless and all packed in four large

cartons to be exported to the international market. Turtle meat is

served in soups and is considered to be not only a delicacy but also

in fact an aphrodisiac in many countries including China, Hong Kong,

Singapore and Thailand. Just these four cartons alone could fetch up

to Rs 1 million.

 

The cartons were tagged with the words ‘Thai cargo’ and the bill no

217-16234875. They were supposed to be taken to Beijing, China. The

railway police station lodged an FIR no 44/2009 under section 411/34

Pakistan Panel Code (PPC) while also arresting the wildlife

department’s junior clerk, Bashir Ahmed Shiekh, the Sindh Wildlife

conservator’s personal driver Ghulam Nabi and Imran, a rickshaw

driver. The 150 kg consignment was also taken into custody along with

the official vehicle, registration no GS-4126 and Imran’s rickshaw,

bearing resgistration no D-45521 in custody. The incident took place

while Sindh Wildlife Conservator Husain Bux Bhaagat was not in the

country and is in Saudi Arabia for performing Umrah. Interestingly,

the meat was lying at the Provincial Wildlife Conservator Department,

as it had been recovered in raids conducted over the past two years

and was stolen from there on early Thursday morning.

 

“We were already informed that the turtle meat was being stolen, so I

had personally arranged for guards so that we could foil their attempt

but the culprits had already fled from the scene, hence we contacted

the railway police,” said Karachi District Game Warden Karachi

Shahbuddin Burfat. He added that Bashir was a junior clerk but had

been working as a wildlife inspector and although he has been posted

in the Larkana district he has been working in Karachi.

 

District Game Warden Office official Muhammad Naeem said he and his

fellows attempted to intercept the culprits but could not manage to do

so and they escaped with the turtle meat. “We took photos while they

were stealing the meat,” he said, adding that the meat was supposed to

be bought by three businessmen and they had arrived in a rickshaw but

when the police came, they ran away. “I helped the police, as Bashir

was running really fast but we caught him after chasing him for two

hours,” said Naeem.

 

Turtles are protected under the Sindh wildlife Act 1972 under which

capturing, keeping, hunting, killing and transporting turtles in any

form is prohibited. During the last two years, the wildlife team has

raided several vehicles and recovered meat, which was kept at the

provincial conservator office.

 

The source said that Provincial Minister for Sindh Wildlife Department

Daya Ram Essrani directed the wildlife staffers to take the meat to a

certain place. To hide the case from media Essrani requested the

railway police not to lodge a case and handover the recovered items

and persons to his department while promising to conduct a

departmental inquiry against them, but the railway police refused to

do so. “This cannot be a departmental case as we have arrested the

culprits red-handed while also recovering stolen property from them.

The wildlife minister requested that we hand the culprits over to his

department but we bluntly refused,” said Railway DSP Shafi Muhammad

Mughal.

 

Talking to this scribe, Bashir Shiekh did not mention any names but

said that the high ups of the department had told him to sort the old

and fresh meat apart and then to weight it. “I came to the Cantonment

Railway station to weigh the meat and all of sudden the police came

and arrested us,” said Bashir. When he was asked about the tags

attached to the cartons as well as the information indicating that the

meat will be exported to China, he bluntly rejected the allegation and

said that the meat was not supposed to be exported anywhere. “It is a

conspiracy and these tags were not on these cartoons when we were

arrested and in fact they were glued on after we had been taken into

custody,” he said.

 

Even after this scribe tried to Essrani several times to get an

official version on this case and to clarify how the turtle meat came

out of the office in the official vehicle and whether or not the

recovered items such as animals hides, trophies and other items are

safe or not, he bluntly rejected to issue any statement. Essrani,

usually does not talk to media men and despite clear directives from

the president and the Sindh chief minister he does not sit in his

office. “I am on vacation and my number is not saved in the minister’s

cell. I have tried to contact him several times but have not gotten a

response, hence I cannot issue a statement in this regard,” said Sindh

Wildlife Department PRO Hizbullah Memon.

 

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