Eidul Azha is around the corner and sacrificial animals have started arriving in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, but people are taking little interest in buying animals due to high prices.
The middle class circles said sacrificial animals were out of reach of common men keeping in view exuberant rates of sacrificial animals. Capital Development Authority (CDA) has notified sale points of sacrificial animals in the city.
An animal trader told this agency that the prices of sacrificial animals had almost doubled as compared to the previous years due to various reasons including the increase in prices of animals feed and other expenditures like residence, government fees and transportation charges.
An official of CDA told this agency that concerned authorities had asked the administrations to improve the management including security affairs of such approved sale points of the sacrificial animals. He said that the traders had been instructed to sell their animals on the approved sale points and animal markets till Eid and in case of any violation of the rules, they would be fined.
The animals’ traders are also establishing sale points in an officially approved animals market at different points. These animals mostly come form various districts of the Punjab including Attock, Talagang, Chakwal, Gujar Khan, Rajan Pur, Sargodha, Mianwali, Choa Saddan Shah, Okara and Mandi Bhauddin to the capital markets.
The CDA would arrange ten days sacrificial animals markets in different areas of the Capital including 1-11 Sector in front of Sabzi Mandi, Noorpur Shahan (Barri Imam) and Golra Sharf, an official of CDA told this agency.
An owner of the sacrificial animals selling point said they are waiting for the last ten days when the sacrificial markets would rise and people come to buy these animals.
Trader of the animals market Ghulam Hussain said there is a shortage of the sacrificial animals in markets and their high prices are keeping away the people from purchasing.
He said the price of a healthy medium sized goat will not be less than Rs15,000, while a medium weight heifer will cost around Rs40,000 this year. He said last year price of a goat ranged from Rs9,000 to Rs10,000 and a heifer was for Rs20,000 to 30,000.”