06 February 2004	Friday	14 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Feb 5: The rich have all kinds of advantages over the poor. Not only do they have a better chance of making it good in this life, but arguably in the hereafter too.

They can undertake charity work in a big way. They can perform Haj as many times as they want. And they can offer the sacrifice of several expensive - no prohibitively overpriced - animals during Eidul Azha.

There is a family in Gulshan-i-Iqbal who got one goat slaughtered on Eid for each of its members, children included. In all, 11 goats were offered as sacrifice, each costing at least Rs15,000. The total money they spent on sacrificial animals, therefore, came to more than Rs150,000, this reporter has learnt.

Another family, headed by two brothers who live in Nazimabad, spent upwards of Rs400,000 during Eid. They bought four cows, each costing Rs75,000 or more, and eight goats, each priced at more than Rs18,000. Every year this family spends at least Rs300,000 on sacrificial animals, Dawn was told.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are countless families who cannot afford to offer even one animal as a sacrifice. Almost nothing, thus, throws into sharp relief the differences between the poor and the rich better than Eidul Azha.

Abdul Khaliq, who works for a private firm as an office assistant, said he had to give Qurbani a miss this time round. "I could not manage to buy even one of the seven shares of the cow that some mosques were offering at Eid," he remarked.

"All I needed for a share was Rs2,200. But I have zero savings at the moment. So, though I badly wanted to buy an animal, or at least have one-seventh of one, I could not."

In response to a question, he explained that he rarely missed out on Qurbani. "But when He Himself does not want me to offer anything as a sacrifice, how can I?"

He earns only Rs4,500 per month. "Every month I spend Rs1,500 on rent. Then there is transportation as I have to spend Rs20 each day just to commute to and from office." The rest of the money is spent on food and clothing of his family.

Another poor man - Rashid Hussein, who works as a clerk at a private company - had to borrow Rs3,500 from a family friend to buy a goat that was sacrificed on the second day of Eid. "Had I not borrowed the money, I would not have been able to buy the goat."

Answering a question, Mr Hussein observed that he had been borrowing money to be able to buy sacrificial animals for the last six years. "Before that, I used to avoid Qurbani altogether."

Syed Akhlaque, who lives in North Karachi, told Dawn that for Eid he had bought two cows, one for Rs75,000 and the other for Rs41,000. "You see, we have a joint family system. We are five brothers and we pool money to buy good-looking animals."

Answering a question, Mr Akhlaque pointed out that money had never been a consideration while selecting the animals to be sacrificed. "We just go for cows or goats that appeal to us. Since we brothers pool our money, we can even afford expensive animals."

The women in the family played an important role in the selection of the cow or goat to be bought, he explained. "A couple of years ago we bought such a beautiful and strong cow that several people in our neighbourhood actually videotaped it."

He dealt in medicines, said Mr Akhlaque. Less than ten per cent of the people were interested in buying really expensive animals. "Even though a lot of people seem to be interested in the heavier animals, my assessment is that less than one-tenth actually buy one."

Speaking to this reporter on his beautiful lawn, Mr Akhlaque asserted that the butchers had charged Rs10,000 for slaying his two cows. For just the amount that his family paid to the butchers they could have bought an animal. But that animal would have been a simple and plain one.