Meaty matters: Shifting slaughterhouse site attracts butchers’ ire

CDA abandons H-9 site after metro bus chief ‘gave it’ to affected Sabzi Mandi traders.

ISLAMABAD:

Further delays are feared in the execution of a long-promised slaughterhouse for the capital, as the site allocated for it is now due for incorporation in the realigned H-9 weekly bazaar.

All Pakistan Jamiatul Quresh (APJQ), a butchers’ association, has strongly opposed the decision and threatened to move the court against the decision, which was dubbed “anti-people” by APJQ President Khurshid Qureshi.

A significant portion of the existing H-9 bazaar – consisting of around 750 stalls – will be removed to make way for an interchange at Peshawar Mor to facilitate the under-construction metro bus project.

A few days ago, some shopkeepers who will be affected by the construction plan had protested against their eviction from the bazaar.

Later, the representatives of affected merchants and the members of the metro bus project implementation committee agreed to shift the affected stalls to a location adjacent to the existing market. That location was a 20-acre area in Sector H-9/3 marked for the establishment of an abattoir.

“Shifting 750 stalls and developing new entry points for the bazaar will affect the size and accessibility for the slaughterhouse,” said an official, explaining the rationale behind shifting the site.

Khurshid Qureshi alleged that land for the slaughterhouse would be utilised for developing a metro bus station. He said alternate land offered by the CDA for the establishment of an abattoir in I-11/4 had previously been rejected by APJQ.

“We strongly condemn the metro bus project. It is eating up our project,” Qureshi said, adding they would take every possible step including forcibly stopping construction related to the bus project at the slaughterhouse site.

It will be third site relocation within a period of one year. Around a year ago, the CDA board moved the site for the slaughterhouse to Sector H-9/3 from an earlier proposed site in Sector G-10 as the latter could be auctioned for a substantial sum. It was suggested that the auction income would be used to build the slaughterhouse in H-9/3.

However, the money earned from the plot sale was spent elsewhere.

Earlier, the incumbent CDA management finalised the PC-I for the slaughterhouse in H-9 and allocated Rs50 million for the execution of first-phase, which had a total estimated cost of Rs60million. This is now up in the air because the authority has already accepted a deal finalised between the H-9 shopkeepers and PML-N member Hanif Abbasi, the chairman of the implementation committee on metro bus project.

Khurshid Qureshi said APJQ held a fruitless meeting with CDA Administration Member Amer Ali Ahmad over the issue on Wednesday.

CDA spokesperson Asim Khichi said 20 acres in I-11/4 had been identified in lieu of the H-9 plot. He said the said land was fully developed, easily-accessible and suitable for developing the facility.

He said the shifting sites would not impact the construction timeframe. “The deadlines for construction are the same as before,” Khichi said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2014.