A senior Pakistani judge has objected to numerous visits by Persian Gulf Arab royals who spend part of their winter in the Asian state hunting houbara bustard, a rare bird facing the risk of extinction.

During a hearing session in Islamabad on Thursday, Qazi Faez Isa, a panel member of senior judges at Pakistan’s Supreme Court, criticized a new call by the government to overturn the ban on houbara hunting, saying such a move could hasten the demise of the bird.

He said the Islamabad government seeks to “reduce Pakistan to a desert,” saying, “Can’t they (Arab sheikhs) do it (hunting) in their own country?”

This came after Islamabad asked the court to cancel a ban imposed by the top court in August on hunting houbara bustard.

The government’s deputy attorney general, Amir Rehman, told the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali that controlled hunting “is a tool for preservation, so it should be allowed,” adding, “Conservation efforts cannot be successful without economic benefits for the communities.”

The ban was widely welcomed by wildlife campaigners. However, the Islamabad government has repeatedly asked the court to review the decision. 

Reacting to the ruling, Rehman said the court had not taken into account provincial laws which allow hunting of the rare bird.  

The court has adjourned the hearing for three weeks and asked Rehman to bring more data about the population of the bird.

This comes as International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also classified the birds as “vulnerable.”

Arab sheikhs regularly travel to Pakistan to hunt the houbara bustards using falcons. Thousands of the birds enter Pakistan in winter to flee icy temperatures of the Central Asian regions.

The Pakistani government began issuing permits to houbara hunters for royals from the Persian Gulf countries in the 1970s. The move was initially seen a way to forge diplomatic ties with them after rival India imposed a ban on hunting the birds.

Last year, a Saudi prince illegally hunted more than 2,000 houbara bustards, which are protected under Pakistani law. The Saudi prince went on a hunting spree for rare birds in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

The issue of Saudi and Qatari royals coming to Pakistan to hunt with falcons is becoming increasingly controversial. Activists have blamed the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for colluding with some royals from the Arab monarchies over the issue.