LAHORE, Dec 16: The Punjab government has failed to encourage the private-sector initiatives to provide low-cost and quality meat to people.Although it had established the Lahore Meat Company (LMC) earlier this year in the provincial capital, the facility has yet to expand to other parts of the province.

“The government is ignoring the professionals who are eager to provide hygienic meat to the whole of province by handling sale and purchase of animals, slaughter, meat cutting, packing and supply to citizens,” says Red Cow Products of Pakistan (RCPP) chairman Muhammad Younis Qureshi.

Speaking to Dawn at his Township office, Mr Qureshi claimed the entire processing – from sale of animals to meat supply to market – was being carried out in unhygienic conditions in the country.

He said: “This traditional style is not only causing serious health hazards to people but also creating environmental issues. The butchers are illiterate and untrained and are playing with the health of the masses by providing unhygienic meat without any fear of the regulatory authorities (if any).”

He said slaughtering of under-age animals, which is illegal, was an unchecked practice in Lahore and elsewhere in the country. No effective strategy had been devised to crack down on the mafia, he added.

Another issue the RCCP chairman highlighted was that the butchers were involved in the entire process of meat availability. This allowed them to supply the meat of dead or sick animals in urban and semi-urban areas, he said.

“Such butchers even inject water into an animal's body through arteries of the heart so as to increase weight. They fill water by inserting a thin water-pipe into arteries of animals, which increases the weight from four to five kilo but in the process makes it unhygienic.”

As for the consumption of red and white meat in the country, Mr Qureshi said 95 per cent of Pakistan's population consumed meat in one form or another.

“The people of Lahore daily consume 160 metric ton (MT) beef, 120 ton mutton and 380 ton chicken. In Karachi, people consume 360 ton beef, 280 ton mutton and 820 ton poultry meat. The consumption for Rawalpindi/Islamabad is 60 ton beef, 55 ton mutton and 180 ton chicken.”

He said the RCPP, established in 1986, owed its genesis to the need for supplying hygienic red and white meat to people and eliminating the wrongdoers. It had set up Red Cow Meat Training Centre (RCMTC) to build capacity of the professionals and help those aspiring to join the profession.

Mr Qureshi said he had time and again contacted the Punjab and federal governments to offer services by getting the RCMTC affiliated with the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta), but it had yet to get a favourable response.

“We even deposited the requisite fee with Tevta and held a meeting with CM's special initiative chairman Haroon Khwaja and other senior officials but to no avail.”

He said Tevta authorities had also sought opinion from four experts about registration of the RCMTC, but it failed to initiate the process despite clear-cut recommendation by the experts.

CM's special initiative chairman Haroon Khwaja, Lahore Meat Company Chief Executive Dr Hamid Jalil and Lahore division commissioner Khusro Pervaiz could not be contacted despite repeated attempts by this reporter.

Tevta General Manager (Academics) Javaid Malik told Dawn he remained in contact with the RCMTC and took the initiative to develop a curriculum to enable the institution to be registered with the authority. “But the committees formed to visit this centre had pointed out some technical flaws which delayed affiliation,” he claimed.