KARACHI: After week-long deliberations and consultations with stakeholders, the city administration on Friday increased official prices of live bird, chicken meat and mutton.

According to the new notified rates, the chicken meat price is fixed at Rs356 per kilo and mutton price at Rs1,220 a kilogram.

However, at the retail level the chicken meat is being sold in the city on Friday at over Rs500 per kilogram, while mutton is being sold at Rs1,400 a kilo.

Only on Wednesday, officials told a meeting that chicken meat with bones was being sold in different parts of the city at Rs500 and mutton at the price ranging from Rs1,400 to Rs2,000.

The new prices were fixed at a meeting chaired by Commissioner Muhammad Iqbal Memon.

Meeting fixes price of per kilo chicken meat, mutton at Rs356 and Rs1,220 respectively

He said that the rate of live bird at poultry farm level was fixed at Rs220 per kg, Rs228 per kg at wholesalers and Rs235 per kg for retailers.

He said that the deputy commissioners of seven districts of the city and the Bureau of Prices and Supply (BPS) had recommended live bird rate at Rs221, chicken meat at Rs340 and mutton meat price at Rs1,128 per kg. “But after consultation with associations, a few factors have been added in these prices and new rates have been fixed,” he added.

Previously, the official prices of live bird and its meat were Rs138 per kg and Rs214 per kilo, respectively, while the official price of one kilogram mutton was Rs740.

The meeting was attended by deputy commissioners, officials of the BPS, senior vice chairman of Pakistan Poultry Association Ghulam Khaliq, poultry wholesaler association president Chaudhry Tanveer Ahmed, president of retailers association Imran Mughal, chairman of Consumers Protection Association Pakistan Kokab Iqbal, chairman of Consumers Eye Pakistan Omar Ghauri, general secretary of Meat Merchant Welfare Association Sheikh Arsalan and chairman of Al-Quresh Association Shahid Hussain Qureshi and officers of relevant departments.

Citizens urged to complain at 1299

The commissioner during the meeting ordered the DCs to enforce the newly fixed prices of chicken and mutton and ensure that shopkeepers displayed the new price lists at a prominent place at shops.

“We have to protect the rights of citizens,” he said, adding that citizens could lodge complaints at helpline 1299, commissioner website and Facebook page.

The consumer rights activists expressed ‘full confidence’ in the price calculation procedures and consultation process adopted by the commissioner office.

Mr Ghauri said that he was ‘satisfied’ that for the first time such a detailed working and consultation had taken place.

Kokab Iqbal said that the DCs and BPS had done ‘excellent work’ and added that the commissioner had introduced a ‘good tradition’.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2022