In an unprecedented move, the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) established temporary slaughter houses in different areas, where citizens were offered free butcher services to get their sacrificial animals slaughtered during the three days of Eidul Azha.
However, according to sources in the city government, there was a catch to the free-of-charge service – in many cases, the hides of sacrificial animals were handed over to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-backed Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) directly from the slaughter houses.
Well-placed sources told Pakistan Today that the people who brought their sacrificial animals to avail the free service at the temporary slaughter houses were only given the meat of their animal but the animals’ hides were not returned. “Later, the animal hides were handed over to the KKF.”
The idea of combined animal slaughter was floated from the Governor’s House and large areas at union council levels throughout the metropolis were established, where the butchers were paid by the city government itself.
Some parts of the city were ignored as temporary slaughter houses were not set up. The citizens also complained that entrails of animals were not timely lifted during Eidul Azha.
They said that the CDGK-owned vehicles of Bin Qasim, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gadap, Keamari and SITE towns visited the areas for four to five hours only and were not seen after noon; whereby, the offal dumped on the roadsides caused unhygienic atmosphere. It is worth mentioning that more than 10,000 CDGK officials were deputed for ‘special duties’ during the three days of eid. The leaves of all the towns’ employees were cancelled. The city administration had established over 200 collection spots and dug up over 18 trenches for burial of offal of sacrificial animals. Moreover, about 1,500 vehicles were lined-up for lifting and disposing animal entrails.
