ISLAMABAD, July 21: Prices of beef and mutton have gone up by Rs15 and Rs5 per kg respectively, the residents of the capital said on Sunday.

The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration had already fixed the price of beef and mutton at Rs55 and Rs95 per kg respectively, but the butchers never followed the official prices in Islamabad, they said.

Following the recent increase, beef is being sold between Rs85 and Rs95 per kg and mutton at Rs125 per kg in the market.

The price of beef varies according to the age of animals. Calf meat is being sold at Rs90 per kg while the price of an adult cow’s meat is Rs80 per kg.

Similarly, the price of boneless meat of a calf is Rs95 and that of an adult cow is Rs85 per kg.

“A couple of days ago, the market price of mutton, set by the butchers, was Rs120 per kg and beef, Rs70 to Rs80 per kg,” Abdul Rehman, a butcher at Peshawar Mor, said.

Some of the butchers are selling unhygienic and unstamped meat in the markets of Islamabad and the authority concerned is taking no action to check this practice, some of the residents complained.

They also complained that butchers had unofficially increased rates of meat by 40 to 60 per cent. They said unhygienic meat was being sold openly at various markets of Islamabad, including Karachi Company, Peshawar Mor (INT Centre), Aabpara Market, Sitara Market, F-10 Market, I-9 and I-10 markets.

They said prices of beef and mutton were going up by the day as butchers were selling meat at higher rates as compared to the prices officially fixed by the district administration.

Butchers have also been accused of using inaccurate weighing scales as a result of which they sold less quantity of meat.

A source in the district administration told Dawn that most of the butchers had opened private slaughter-houses where ailing animals were being slaughtered.