Cattle markets doing low business ahead of Eid-ul-Azha

MULTAN: Cattle rearers, mostly villagers from flood-hit parts of South Punjab, have complained of comparably low tendency of people towards buying sacrificial animals.

During visits to different animal markets in the parts of the city, it was learnt that most of the cattle traders who used to sell their stock in two to three days were now staying in the city for the last seven days with minimum successful bargains.

There were cattle traders who were unable to sell even a single animal from their stock of five to ten animals despite staying for a week or longer.

Aslam from Chowk Qureshi told a local news agency that buyers were not offering reasonable price and accepting their offer would return losses only. He complained that in the big cattle markets, the contractors were charging three per cent tax on every success fuldeal.

In smaller markets, the cattle traders and buyers are forced to pay Rs 100 each on every single successful deal. Moreover, cattle traders also have to pay Rs 250 per person to the contractor and in return the contractors give them a place to sleep in tents. Khuda Bakhsh, Munir, Mohammad Naseem, Akbar and other cattle traders said that it seems as if the people reached cattle market without putting enough money into their pockets.

The buyers said that the rising prices of essential items and utilities have crippled their ability to buy animals to perform the Sunnah of Hazrat Ibraheem Alaih Salam on the forthcoming Eidul Azha.

Most of the people were now preferring to buy a big animal and pay the share to perform the religious ritual. Seven people can jointly buy a big animal like cow and the option was becoming popular for being cost effective, say two buyers Amjad and Afzal Ahmad.

The price of normal big animals ranged from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 while the prices of goat and sheep ranged from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000.

However, there was no dearth of wealthy people who could afford extraordinary healthy animals at high price.

One such man bought a pair of goat after paying a price ofRs 380,000 from a Layyah based cattle trader that translates into Rs 190,000 price per goat, says a cattle trader at a cattlemarket near general bus stand.