Party claims hide collection breaks past records

Member of MQM party said estimated amount expected from sale of hides is between Rs300 million to Rs400 million.

KARACHI: Surrounded by animal skins worth millions of rupees at Tariq Ground in Federal B Area, workers of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) affiliated organisation, kept piling up the prized commodity.

Speaking to The Express Tribune prior to a press briefing, former city nazim and KKF chief trustee Mustafa Kamal said that he preferred not to disclose the number of skins collected as there were “different repercussions” to such information. He did, however, mention that this year they had broken their own record of the highest collection from across the country.

“In the Punjab, the five districts that donated skins to the MQM include Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Gujranwala,” he said. “This is a sign of the confidence and support the MQM is garnering in the province.”

In Balochistan, they set up main camps in Quetta, Bolan, Naseerabad, Sibi, Pishin and Jaffarabad. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa they received skins at collection points set up in Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, Battgram and Dera Ismail Khan. While in Gilgit-Baltistan, camps were set up in Diamer, Hunza Nagar, Ghazar, Skardu and Ghancha. In Sindh, Kamal mentioned 19 interior zones, some of which are Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Umerkot, Thatta, Jacobabad, Dadu, Kashmore and Naushero Feroze. In Karachi, their highest collection came from MQM strongholds, including Federal B Area, North Karachi, Nazimabad and Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

The thousands of animal skins, including those of cows, goats and camels, were laid out across the ground where large amounts of salt, used as an anti-bacterial and as a method of improving the skin’s quality, was dumped on them. Once ready for sale, the skins can prove to be lucrative.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of the party said the estimated amount from the sale is between Rs300 million to Rs400 million, which is “the major source of revenue for KKF’s charitable activities”. On the other hand, Kamal said the sale barely generates 10 per cent of the foundation’s required resources. For his part, Aziz Ahmed of the Pakistan Tanners Association and the All Pakistan Tanners Association estimates the party’s sales to not exceed Rs200 million.

Depending on the quality, market rates put the price of goat skin between Rs300 to Rs450 (a 40 per cent hike from the previous year), cow skin at Rs3,000 to Rs3,200 (30 per cent hike), sheep skin at Rs550 to Rs600 (30 per cent hike) and camel skin (which isn’t in great demand and is mainly used for horse saddles), between Rs1,000 to Rs1,500.

All Pakistan Meat Merchants Association’s Jehangir Afsar Qureshi said the collection of “hundreds and hundreds of thousands” of skins was a bit of a “stretch” as the number of sacrifices was significantly lower this year. Aziz Ahmed of the Pakistan Tanners Association agrees. “There are many reasons for the decline in sacrifices this Eid,” Ahmed said, adding, “and though the numbers are still coming in, we expect a decline of about 30 per cent compared to the eight to 10 million sacrifices last year.” Reasons include lower buying power due to inflation and an economic recession, expensive animals with many people preferring to share a portion of a sacrifice and the limited number of animals after 1.7 million perished in the floods.

Ahmed points to another vital reason as well, “under the umbrella of the government’s live animal export, there are at least five times of the allotted number being smuggled out of the country.” According to Ahmed, the rising price of sheep meat in Iran and Afghanistan is one of the driving forces behind large exports. Sheep’s meat in Iran currently costs between Rs1,800 to Rs2,000 per kilogramme (kg) whereas in Pakistan it is priced at about Rs500 per kg.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2010.