After Eid

It is almost a week now that the faithful offered Qurbani all over Pakistan with great devotion, zeal and passion. However, in the process they literally littered their surroundings with the innards and entrails, offals and intestines of the sacrificed ranimals, some of which still 'adorn' certain streets, roads, parks and nullahs sending nauseating whiffs to passers by and the hapless residents living around. These sites also offer breeding ground for contagious diseases at an epidemic scale. Ironically, each and every citizen and mediaperson blames the municipalities for not collecting the foul waste and disposing it off elsewhere but not one of them blames himself for causing such a sorry state of affairs in the first instance by dumping the entrails in the open.

We have been offering Qurbani for centuries and have yet to learn the basic rudimentaries of such civic sense. I would, therefore, propose that all sacrificial animals be slaughtered in proper government abattoirs centrally in the future. The slaughter house could allot the time of the sacrifice and pack the dressed meat according to the individual’s requirement. And all for a nominal charge too. The proper acceptable procedure to follow could be worked out by the government administration and the ulema jointly. It will save the faithfuls lots of logistic hassle apart from offering them a the neat and clean manner of offering Qurbani, without dumping the sacrificial waste out in the open to rot for days. It is nothing new and is being done in Europe, Americas, Canada, Japan and most of the world. Incidentally, it has Islamic sanctions also, for it is done during Hajj for the past many years.

Col Riaz Jafri

Rawalpindi