ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Unsavoury, overpriced meat is being sold in local markets, residents have complained.

They said the local butchers had arbitrarily increased the rates of the discoloured meat they were selling by 40 to 60 per cent.

The complainants said unhygienic meat was being sold at Karachi Company, Peshawar Mor (INT Centre), Aabpara Market, Sitara Market and the F-10, I-9 and I-10 markets.

The meat on sale has no stamps to show that it has been examined medically, they further said.

According to a district administration source, most of the butchers have opened their private slaughterhouses where they slaughter immature or ailing animals and market the unhygienic meat without putting it through a medical examination — a must in government’s slaughterhouses.

The district administration has fixed the prices of beef and mutton at Rs45 and Rs90 per kilogram respectively. However, beef is being sold at Rs70 to Rs90 per kilogram and mutton at Rs120 per kilogram.

“The rate of boneless beef is Rs80 per kilogram. When bought with bones, a kilogram of beef has as much as half a kilogram of bones,” some customers told this scribe.

Chicken is being sold at Rs50 per kilogram in Rawalpindi and Rs54 per kilogram in Islamabad.

Moreover, the complainants said, the local butchers used faulty measures of weight.

The authorities are heedless of these violations of rules by the local butchers.

The people have appealed to the concerned authorities to move against these butchers.