The real sacrifice: Police, civic officials’ extortion deprive many of happiness

While buyers’ complaints are aimed at sellers, the latter blame the government.

ISLAMABAD:

By now, most people would have bought animals to be sacrificed on Eidul Azha. But those who have not might still have a few options left and a few problems too.

Animals are still being sold in Saidpur village and the Sector I-11 cattle market set up by the Capital Development Authority (CDA), while some traders have also set up smaller illegal markets of their own in different parts of Rawalpindi.

As the norm goes, most of the buyers are complaining about high prices, saying small animals which normally sell for Rs6,000 to Rs10,000 on normal days are being priced three to four times higher. The same goes for bulls and camels.



“The tremendous price hike is ruining the happiness of Eidul Azha for which the vendors should be held responsible,” said Irfan Sadhozai, a buyer at the CDA cattle market.

And although the response of most buyers echoed the same words, there is another side of the story that needs to be narrated. The cattle market vendors had a long explanation to justify the rise in prices.

“How can we sell the animals at lower prices when we have to pay every concerned person in the business threefold ourselves?” asked Waqar Ahmad, a vendor from Bhakkar, narrating the routine he had gone through to sell his animals.

“I paid more than Rs1,000 higher per animal for transportation. Then, I paid different taxes to the district governments for using their roads, and after that I paid Rs200 as entry fee for each animal I brought into the market,” he revealed.

Vendors are paying more than double the expenses they usually pay at the market for things like drinking water and feed for the animals.

“Who do you think we should charge to compensate all the extra costs? Obviously, it is going to be the buyers who will pay,” Rafaaqat Ali, a vendor from Jhang, said while answering his own question. “This is business and one simply doesn’t bear losses in business. We invest in the form of illegal taxes, overpriced feed and bribes paid to the police and we take our investment back from the buyer”, he added.

A rarity in cattle sellers, Adnan, an educated vendor from Rajanpur, said it was not only cattle breeders and sellers who raise the prices of animals.

“If the government wants no price hike, it should control the price hike on things related to the business and also control the local police who take bribes from each transport vehicle,” he said, adding, “Every year, extortion and price hikes are routine and the government does not care to control these things”.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2013.