LAHORE, Dec 16: Butchers, animal and meat traders on Thursday refused to resume slaughter and sale of meat in the provincial metropolis without restoration of the system of charging the entry fee in accordance with the number of the animals.
Jamiat-i-Quresh President Sheikh Anwar Saeed and his supporters visited the Kot Kamboh slaughterhouse on Wednesday night and stopped the butchers from slaughtering animals pending the restoration of the old system of entry fee recovery.
Representatives of meat and animal trade stakeholders, Jamiat Al-Quresh leader Khalid Toor, Meat Dealers Association President Noor Nabi, Mutton Sellers representative Haji Shaukat Ali, Anjuman Kameeldaran President Ejaz Ahmed met Allama Iqbal Town Municipal Officer Imtiaz Awan and Town Officer (Finance) Mian Mazhar and informed them that the slaughter would not be resumed in the city till the restoration of the old system of charging of entry fee.
The stakeholders said that they were not ready to pay the fee for entry of animals in the provincial metropolis on the basis of the sale/purchase price under any circumstances because it was bound to lead to corruption and disputes as there was no method to ascertain the prices of animals which were determined on demand and supply basis.
The procedure would require significant increase in retail price of meat and beef which had not been done. They were of the view that there was no justification to recover the fee on the sale/purchase price basis in the city as animals were brought after purchase from the markets in the areas where these were reared.
The sale/purchase fee had already been enforced in the markets from where the animals were brought to the provincial metropolis. The fee on the basis of price of animals could also not be recovered in the provincial metropolis because it did not have a proper cattle market with facilities prescribed in the law.
The TMO and TO visited the Civil Secretariat after the meeting and apprised the local government department officials of the situation. The local government additional secretary was not available for discussion on the matter as he had left for Islamabad on official business.
Talking to Dawn, the TMO said that the administration could get criminal cases registered against those preventing the butchers from slaughter at the slaughterhouse but they could not compel the butchers to slaughter the animals there.
Another official was of the view that recovery of fee on sale/purchase price could pose problems because most of the traders purchased the animals from the markets in areas where these were reared and brought the same to the provincial metropolis only for slaughter. The sale/purchase did not take place in the provincial metropolis in case of most of animals.
