Donkey meat trade

The shocking discovery of nearly 1,000 kilograms of donkey meat from a farmhouse in Tarnol has exposed yet another grisly underbelly of Pakistan's illegal food trade. More than 50 live donkeys were found at the site, alongside sophisticated packaging, indicating that this was no small-time operation. This was a planned and professional enterprise, likely catering to foreign vendors.

The Islamabad Food Authority deserves credit for this timely crackdown, but the fact that such a large-scale operation could flourish undetected within the capital's vicinity for so long points to systemic oversight and a weak enforcement regime. That a foreign national was arrested on-site suggests cross-border dimensions, but it would be dangerously simplistic to portray this as an external problem.

No such operation can function without local support. It is imperative that authorities identify and prosecute every domestic accomplice, especially those embedded within the enforcement ecosystem.

The claim that the meat was intended for foreigners does not lessen the seriousness of the crime. In fact, it reinforces the need to investigate whether local restaurants, eateries or exporters were complicit, knowingly or otherwise. Moreover, such revelations severely undermine public trust in food vendors - already tenuous in a country with a long history of adulterated and contaminated mislabelled products.

To prevent such operations from taking root again, Pakistan's food regulators must move beyond reactive enforcement and take practical, decentralised steps. First, all livestock farms and slaughterhouses must be registered with local authorities. Second, restaurants must be compelled to submit quarterly disclosures listing their meat suppliers along with verifiable documentation.

Any establishment found serving meat from undocumented sources should face heavy fines and immediate suspension. Third, a simple but effective traceability measure should be introduced by requiring official slaughterhouses to issue colour-stamped packaging with serial numbers. This will help ensure accountability and curb the illegal trade of donkey meat.