The Karachi administration has allowed 293 organisations, including political parties, to collect hides of sacrificial animals during Eidul Azha, said Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, adding they (parties) have to submit a report regarding their collections and its spending.
He said, “The administration has decided to allow 293 parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Jamaat-e-Islami and others, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and some registered madaris (seminaries) to collect hides.” He further said these organizations would have to submit report regarding the receivable income from hides and skins and where this amount was to be spent.” “The government may also conduct audits of those parties if they did not submit report,” he added.
The MQM would be a major beneficiary of this decision as it collects around 60-70 per cent hides from the city and was perturbed after the Rangers operation in Karachi. During the last Ramazan, Rangers did not allow the workers of Muttehida to collect Fitra and Zakat in Karachi.
The Rangers officials also forced the federal government not to allow any party to collect skins of sacrificial animals this year, as they doubt that this amount was being spent on terrorism in Karachi and other parts of the country.
The city government officials and Rangers would monitor this operation of Eidul Azha and no one, except these 293 organizations, would be allowed to get hides and skin, he said. However, these parties cannot go to the door to door for the collection of skins and individual persons would deliver hides and skins of sacrificial animals directly to the area camps of these parties.
The commissioner Karachi further warned, “who will collect skins forcefully would be punished according to the law.”
Waseem Akhter said, “The MQM would break all its previous record in collection of Hides and Skins this year. We were number one in Karachi and would be number one.” There is a wrong conception of the government that our popularity has come down after this operation, he said.
He further said the receivable amount from these skins would be spent through Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) and on families of martyred workers. We are ready to give audit of a single penny of this amount, he said.
According to a rough estimate, the sales of sacrificial animals have been increased by 15-20 percent this year in Karachi. Political parties received an estimated amount of Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 billion from the sales of hides and skins every year.
A secretary of a Tannery Association in Karachi, Mohammad Ikram said, “We received around 30-35 percent hides and skins of our yearly demand in this month.”
As per a report of Pakistan Tanners Association (central office Karachi), nearly 7.3 million animals were sacrificed on Eidul Azha last year including 2.5 million cows and buffaloes, 4 million goats, 0.8 million sheep and 30,000 Camels.
With about 800 tanneries in the country actively engaged in producing high quality finished leather from cow, buffalo, sheep and goat skins, Pakistan is considered a hub of producing quality leather and leather products.
