KARACHI, Nov 11: Meat-sellers called off their strike on Tuesday, announcing they would begin selling beef and mutton on Wednesday at the rates prescribed by the city government.

They made this announcement at a press conference where city Nazim Naimatullah Khan was also present.

As soon as the vice-president of the Meat Merchants Welfare Association (MMWA), Haji Mohammad Saleemuddin, made the announcement, the city Nazim rang up DIG (operations) Tariq Jameel, asking him to direct all the town police officers to help provide protection to the Association’s representatives calling off the strike and the meat-sellers who would be resuming their business from Wednesday. Some other members of the MMWA including Shahid Qureshi were also present on the occasion.

Lauding the city Nazim’s efforts to provide meat to the citizens at reasonable prices, Haji Saleem termed the strike uncalled for and unjust, and said it had rendered a number of workers associated with the meat industry jobless and forced their families to starve in Ramazan.

He also thanked Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and chief minister Sardar Mohammad Mahar for not succumbing to the pressure of some office-bearers of the MMWA who, he said, were bent upon creating a situation where more and more workers belonging to the meat industry would have been rendered jobless.

He said he had the support of five thousand MMWA members who would call off the strike on Wednesday( today).

“I have been associated with the MMWA for nineteen years, and not for a single time have elections been held by those at the helm of affairs and who imposed their decision on the community.

“Hardly 50 people support the president of the MMWA. The prices notified by the city government are in favour of meat-sellers and do not carry any harm to their business,” he said.

To a question, he said there were over 5000 meat shops throughout the city and around 100,000 people were associated with the industry.

Asked if it was true that meat-sellers provided mutton to government departments and the Army at Rs135 per kilo, he replied in the affirmative saying the departments floated tenders and successful bidders provided meat to them at cheap rates.

He alleged that tens of thousands of animals meant for slaughtering had been deliberately stopped at the Super Highway merely to create an artificial shortage of animals in the metropolis.

“From tomorrow (Wednesday) the slaughter houses would start functioning and meat will be available at the rates fixed by the city government,” he said adding that MMWA’s stubborn attitude was neither in the interest of the public nor in the interest of meat-sellers.

City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, lauding the MMWA’s vice-president’s decision to call off the strike, said the DIG had been asked to provide protection to them as those who wanted to continue the strike might harass the vice-president and others who had called off the strike.

The Nazim assured that meat prices would be reviewed after Ramazan with the consent of genuine representatives of meat-sellers, and the middleman’s (Arthi) role in the meat business would be eliminated, as was requested by the representatives of meat-sellers.

Later in the night, a delegation of more than 400 beef merchants arrived at the Nazim’s secretariat and announced that they would also resume their business on Wednesday. They said they were slaughtering 500 cows in the night for the purpose.

Led by Chaudhry Mohammed Sadiq, Asif Baig, Waseem, Arif and Tahir, they criticized their top leaders for their decision to strike. The Nazim thanked them for their cooperation. Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan was also present on the occasion.