The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices to the National Council for Conservation of Wildlife, the Wildlife Department and others on a petition of a trader who had imported four lions from South Africa for a private zoo, but the customs authorities seized the big cats over an expired no-objection certificate.

M/s Osaka traders, which deals in imports of animals from different countries, challenged the seizure of the lions by the customs authorities, submitting that the animals had been imported through a valid NOC by the National Council for Conservation of Wildlife after the petitioner was informed by the Sindh Wildlife Department that the NCCW had no objection if a CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species) permit was issued in favour of the petitioner for importing the lions.

The petitioner, through their representative, Irfan Ahmed, submitted that as per the by-laws of the International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora, no import permit was required for the signatories, and in January 2008 the NCCW issued an NOC for the import of 10 lions from South Africa.

He said that four lions had been purchased from South Africa in November this year, and they were first shipped to the Czech Republic and after 45 days of stay they were shifted to Islamabad and then to Karachi through air cargo.

The petitioner submitted that the customs authorities refused to release the lions on the directives of the NCCW and the big cats were later shifted to the Sindh Wildlife Department.

The lions are presently kept at the Karachi Zoological Garden due to a lack of facility at the Wildlife Department.

He submitted that the NCCW had issued an NOC in June 2009 for the import of lions in favour of Salman Shahbaz Sharif, son of the Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, and the petitioner could not be discriminated against through seizure of their validly imported lions. He submitted that the lions were being kept in the Karachi Zoo where they were not secure. He prayed to the court to return the custody of the lions without any delay to the petitioner.

A division bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, after the preliminary hearing of the petition, issued notices to the NCCW, the deputy attorney-general and the advocate-general of Sindh for December 31.