LAHORE: The cattle markets in the provincial capital saw a drop in the prices of big animals (bull, cow, calf, camel etc) and an increase in the prices of small animals (sheep and goat) a day before Eidul Azha.
On the other hand, people continued to throng official and unofficial sale points looking for animals at a reasonable price in several parts of the city. However, they were seen struggling to find the animals of their choice at reasonable rates.
“I visited the Raiwind market to find a pair of goats. But the price was very high, the asking price by most sellers was over Rs300,000. We offered them Rs200,000, but they refused and this forced us to look for a bull calf,” a buyer explained while talking to Dawn on Friday.
“Finally, we succeeded in buying a calf weighing 160kg or so for Rs200,000,” he said adding the same calf’s price two or three days ago was around Rs250,000.
The sale points where animal trade had been picking up include Shahpur Kanjran market (Multan Road), Sports Complex (Adda Rakh Chebeel), LDA City near Sadhar village Kahna (New Defence Road), Mauza Nain Sukh near Saggian Bridge, Barki Road near Paragon City and Raiwind near Haveli Markaz Sundar. The aforementioned sale points fall in the jurisdiction of Wagah, Nishtar, Ravi, Cantt and Raiwind tehsils.
According to a senior executive of the Punjab Cattle Market Management and Development Company, all six sale points had a meagre number of goats, whereas big animals were in a considerable number on Friday.
“I checked all the sale points and the number of big animals was higher than that of goats and sheep. It clearly reflects that most people bought small animals, leaving many big animals unsold,” Jazib Saeed, PCMMDC sale points in-charge said.
He was of the view that such a situation caused reduction in the prices of big animals from 20 to 30pc. But at the same time it caused an increase in the already high prices of small animals from 10 to 20pc, he added. He said that if the situation persists on Eid day, the price of big animals could reduce even more.
“It is a matter of demand and supply. If the demand of small animals remains high, the prices would go higher. Likewise, the prices of big animals can decline further,” he maintained.
Meanwhile, the Lahore commissioner visited various sale points in the city and checked the arrangement and facilities for the sellers, buyers and sacrificial animals.
LESCO: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) claims to have so far arrested nearly 54,000 power thieves since the launch of its anti-theft operations two years ago across all service areas, including Lahore, Kasur, Okara, Nankana Sahib and Sheikhupura.
According to the Lesco CEO, over 209,000 cases were registered on account of power theft.
Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2025
