Meat dealers have beef with SHO

Say police sealed city's largest slaughterhouse and wholesale market

KARACHI:

The Meat Merchants Welfare Association protesting over closure of the meat market and slaughterhouse without any notice by Sukhan police station chief said the officer was deliberately destroying thier businesses.

The Sindh Housing and Townplanning Department had slapped a ban on cattle markets in view of Lumy Skin Disease, although the provincial Livestock Departmet and the fedreal Food Security Ministry have declared that the disease does not affect meat and milk of the animals and was not communicable to humans, the meat dealers said.

The association claimed that the police officer acted for those having vested interests and demanded an inquiry into the incident. MMWA Chairman Nasir Qureshi, General Secretary Sikandar Iqbal Qureshi, Sirajuddin Qureshi, Haroon Qureshi, Kamil Qureshi and other officials participated in the meeting chaired by Haji Abdul Majeed Qureshi at the market in Cattle Colony which was forcibly closed on Saturday by the police. Reportedly, early in the morning, police mobiles cordoned off the area at the behest of SHO Sukhan.

The traders were not allowed to set up the market and were pushed out. Nasir Qureshi informed the meeting that in a recent meeting of the delegation of the association with the Additional Secretary Livestock Department of the Sindh Government, the implementation of the notification of ban on markets by the Housing and Town Planning Department of the local government was not only stopped but it was also assured that the same will be reviewed.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Food and Security of the Federal Government of Pakistan has directed in a letter to all the provincial departments to keep the use and supply of livestock and milk as usual. In this regard, it has been requested that positive news may be relayed on the media for which it is necessary to allow the markets to be set up as usual.

He said that the SHO Sukhan was asked on the phone under which the government ordered he was closing the slaughterhouse and the market but he could not mention any such order. The association demanded the top police officials that action may be taken against SHO Sukhan for exceeding his powers. At the meeting, the meat traders and vendors said that they lost millions of rupees due to the actions of the said officer, whereas there is a fear of shortage of meat in the coming days.