KARACHI, Nov 8: Nazim City District Government Karachi (CDGK), Naimatullah Khan, reiterated on Saturday that he would stand by his earlier decision on meat prices as public interest was supreme.

He was speaking at an “Iftar” hosted by CDGK at the Karachi Press Club to honour journalists. Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan and DCO Mir Husain Ali were also present on the occasion.

“I have told the association of meat merchants that public interest is supreme, and they have to sell meat at the notified prices”, he said.

He said the public and the media had fully supported his decision and he would stick to it. “All the Nazims of union councils and towns have fully supported and lauded my decision in Friday’s meeting and the city government will see that meat is sold at reasonable prices”, he added.

Nazim said it was very unfortunate that the prices of essential items escalate during the Ramazan in an Islamic country, whereas the prices of such things dropped to the lowest level in the western countries before the arrival of Christmas.

“I requested the Anjuman of meat merchants to reduce the prices of meat and beef in Ramazan as it will not affect their profit. But they said it was not feasible for them to sell meat at the notified rates, even though I tried to convince them that they had to sell meat for only 16 days in a month due to the three-day official closure in a week,” the Nazim went on.

He further said that Karachi was not the city of the rich alone, about 52 per cent of the total population lived in 538 katchi abadis with salaries ranging between Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 per month and they did not get the opportunity to buy meat even for months.

He pointed out that meat merchants of Lahore had promised him to sell meat at a rate of Rs135 per kilo and beef at Rs85 per kilo, lower by Rs10 from the notified rate, only during Ramazan. “They are selling meat at a rate of Rs130 per kilo in Lahore. They are coming tomorrow (Sunday) to my residence to discuss the modalities for selling meat in Karachi,” he said and added that meat

would be sold at the notified rates in the city in abundance and there was no need to worry.—APP