Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah has ruled that a proposed importation of elephants would violate Pakistan’s international obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) treaty. Justice Minallah entered the equivalent of a temporary restraining order to prevent the import in response to a petition from the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society. The Ministry of Climate Change and the Federal Board of Revenue will be required to return to court on September 28, 2021, with sufficient evidence that the proposed transfer does not violate wildlife protection laws. Justice Minallah is the same IHC justice who ordered the release of a solitary-confined elephant named Kaavan from the Marghazar Zoo to the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary in 2020.