<p>A Pakistani court approved the relocation of a lonely and mistreated elephant to Cambodia on Saturday after the pachyderm became the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by music star Cher.</p>.<p>Kaavan was kept in chains at Islamabad Zoo and exhibited symptoms of mental illness, prompting global outrage over his treatment and a petition demanding his release that garnered over 400,000 signatures.</p>.<p>The capital's High Court ordered Kaavan's freedom in May and instructed wildlife officials to find him a "suitable sanctuary".</p>.<p>Authorities told a Saturday hearing that an expert committee had recommended he be moved to a 25,000-acre wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia for retirement.</p>.<p>"The court has agreed with the proposal," Anis Ur Rehman, the chairman of Islamabad Wildlife management board, told AFP on Saturday.</p>.<p>Zoo officials have in the past denied that the Kaavan was chained up, instead claiming he was pining for a new mate after his partner died in 2012.</p>.<p>But his behaviour -- including signs of distress such as bobbing his head repeatedly -- demonstrated "a kind of mental illness", Safwan Shahab Ahmad of the Pakistan Wildlife Foundation told AFP in 2016.</p>.<p>Activists also said Kaavan was not properly sheltered from Islamabad's searing summer temperatures, which can rise above 40 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit).</p>.<p>Kaavan's plight drew the attention of Cher, who spent years calling for his freedom.</p>.<p>She tweeted in May that the court's decision to order his release was "one of the greatest moments of my life".</p>.<p>Arriving in Pakistan as a one-year-old in 1985 from Sri Lanka, Kaavan was temporarily held in chains in 2002 because zookeepers were concerned about increasingly violent tendencies.</p>.<p>He was freed later that year after an outcry but it emerged in 2015 that he was once more being regularly chained for several hours each day.</p>.<p>Government minister Malik Amin Aslam said authorities would "free this elephant with a kind heart, and will ensure that he lives a happy life".</p>.<p>The court's May ruling also ordered dozens of other animals -- including brown bears, lions and birds -- to be relocated temporarily while the zoo improves its standards.</p>
<p>A Pakistani court approved the relocation of a lonely and mistreated elephant to Cambodia on Saturday after the pachyderm became the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by music star Cher.</p>.<p>Kaavan was kept in chains at Islamabad Zoo and exhibited symptoms of mental illness, prompting global outrage over his treatment and a petition demanding his release that garnered over 400,000 signatures.</p>.<p>The capital's High Court ordered Kaavan's freedom in May and instructed wildlife officials to find him a "suitable sanctuary".</p>.<p>Authorities told a Saturday hearing that an expert committee had recommended he be moved to a 25,000-acre wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia for retirement.</p>.<p>"The court has agreed with the proposal," Anis Ur Rehman, the chairman of Islamabad Wildlife management board, told AFP on Saturday.</p>.<p>Zoo officials have in the past denied that the Kaavan was chained up, instead claiming he was pining for a new mate after his partner died in 2012.</p>.<p>But his behaviour -- including signs of distress such as bobbing his head repeatedly -- demonstrated "a kind of mental illness", Safwan Shahab Ahmad of the Pakistan Wildlife Foundation told AFP in 2016.</p>.<p>Activists also said Kaavan was not properly sheltered from Islamabad's searing summer temperatures, which can rise above 40 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit).</p>.<p>Kaavan's plight drew the attention of Cher, who spent years calling for his freedom.</p>.<p>She tweeted in May that the court's decision to order his release was "one of the greatest moments of my life".</p>.<p>Arriving in Pakistan as a one-year-old in 1985 from Sri Lanka, Kaavan was temporarily held in chains in 2002 because zookeepers were concerned about increasingly violent tendencies.</p>.<p>He was freed later that year after an outcry but it emerged in 2015 that he was once more being regularly chained for several hours each day.</p>.<p>Government minister Malik Amin Aslam said authorities would "free this elephant with a kind heart, and will ensure that he lives a happy life".</p>.<p>The court's May ruling also ordered dozens of other animals -- including brown bears, lions and birds -- to be relocated temporarily while the zoo improves its standards.</p>