LAHORE, Jan 9: Sacrificial animals have started arriving in the provincial metropolis and are being unloaded in and around the animal market near the Kot Kamboh Slaughterhouse on the Bund Road.

Traders are demanding high prices from intending buyers because of significant increase in mutton and beef prices and availability of time to wait for customers offering higher prices till Eid. They are demanding a minimum Rs6,000 for a lean goat or sheep and Rs20,000 for healthier animals. Prices of ordinary cows start from Rs15,000.

Meanwhile, District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood presided over a meeting here on Sunday to consider the establishment of temporary markets for sale of sacrificial animals. He said sale of animals would be allowed at only one spot in each of the six towns this year instead of a number of places.

He said sacrificial animals markets would be set up on the GT Road stretch between Pakistan Mint and Salamatpura Morr in Shalimar Town, Township, Civic Centre Ground in Nishtar Town, Ghaziabad Doongi Ground in Aziz Bhatti Town, Johar Town Expo Centre site near Shaukat Khanum Hospital (Allama Iqbal Town), Sherakot Motorway Toll Plaza (Data Ganj Bakhsh Town) and Match Factory in Ravi Town.

He said sale of animals at places other than the one specified in every town would be prohibited under the provisions of Section 144 CrPC. Those found selling the animals outside the specified places would be prosecuted.

Mian Amer said a control room comprising representatives of traffic police, solid waste management, town municipal administration and area police would be established in every town to check the sale of animals outside the specified places.

DEMO: The All Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions on Sunday staged a demonstration against dismissal of 19 workers from 3M Factory in Kot Lakhpat for forming a union outside the Lahore Press Club here.

Speaking on the occasion, federation secretary-general Gulzar Ahmed Chaudhry said that the formation of a trade union was the fundamental right of workers but the factory management had sacked them in violation of a stay order issued by the National Industrial Relations Commission.