HYDERABAD, March 25: The Tajiran-i-Maveshian Welfare Association has warned that if forced recovery of “bhatta” by the contractor appointed by the city district government Karachi was not stopped at Nooriabad, cattle merchants will stop supply of cattle to the city.

In a joint statement issued here on Friday, the Sindh president of the association, Baloch Khan Lashari, general secretary Abdul Latif Qureshi, Qalandar Bux Jamali and Wali Mohammad Lund said that the contractor appointed by the Karachi city government to recover annual licence fee on milch buffalos within the city limits has also established an illegal check post at Nooriabad within the jurisdiction of Jamshoro district under the patronage of police.

They said that the contractor was charging “goonda tax” not only on milch buffaloes but also on slaughter animals that were transported to Karachi.

They said that the contractor had fixed what they called “goonda tax” at the rate of Rs150 per animal.

They said that in this way, the contractor was earning tens of millions of rupees through extortion with the help of Nooriabad police.

They said that whenever Nooriabad police was approached, it raised the issue of jurisdiction and outright helped the contractor in the recovery of extortion money.

They regretted that even the Karachi city government was maintaining a discreet silence on the issue though its contractor could not operate beyond the Karachi city limits.

They appealed to the Sindh governor and Sindh chief minister to recover the licence fee only from the buffalo dens located within the limits of Karachi city as he had no legal right to recover any tax from outside Karachi city.

They said that if the illegal recovery of tax by the contractor of the Karachi city government was not stopped, they would withhold the supply of slaughter animals to Karachi, which would create meat crisis.