RAWALPINDI – The butchers are playing havoc with the people’s health by selling unhealthy and unhygienic meat and the practice is going on unchecked as the officials concerned are reluctant to take any action against them for the reasons best known to them.

Though local administration has fixed prices of different commodities in the markets, but there exists no solid mechanism to check quality of meat and its retail prices at the shops, the consumers said this while talking to APP. They alleged that most of the butchers injected water into the veins of the slaughtered animals to increase their weight.
The butchers are selling unhygienic meat in almost all the congested particularly low-income groups areas of the town while people are suffering from several fatal diseases, especially blood pressure and hepatitis. According to reports most of the butchers slaughtered unhealthy animals and sold wet mutton and beef to increase the weight of the meat.
Medical experts said the unabated sale and use of the wet meat was spreading hepatitis and other fatal diseases among the people. The local residents further said the butchers were often found slaughtering the animals in their houses or around their shops instead of slaughtering them in the slaughterhouses which is an illegal practice and must be stopped.
“The hygiene conditions at the butcher shops are very poor but the authorities concerned seem least interested to take action against the violators in accordance with the law,” said Amjad, a government servant.
The quality of meat at most of the shops is very poor, as butchers slaughter unhealthy animals, said Amina Mushtaq, a housewife.
A resident of Peoples Colony in Rawalpindi Cantonment Area said that the butcher’s shops were mostly located at the main roads and the meat remained hanging outside the shops throughout the day and got contaminated with numerous germs and became a health hazard for the citizens. The citizens alleged that the butchers bribed the officials concerned to get the slaughtered animals stamped without any formal inspection.
They said that a number of butchers do not go to the slaughter house because influential ones slaughtered the animals in their houses without fulfilling the legal and hygienic requirements. According to a health expert the meat available in the markets was infected with a number of deadly bacteria and was not fit for human consumption, causing dangerous diseases like typhoid, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, hemorrhagic colitis and other diseases.
It is important to mention here that just a few butchers are fined, challaned and booked under campaigns launched to check quality of meat. The citizens called upon the administration and health authorities to take strict action against the violators of the rules.