Prices of Sacrificial animals’ Gains Momentum
Eid-ul-Azha is round the corner and all the residents of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have started getting ready for buying animals for sacrifice.
However, it is appalling to see they way that the prices of these animals are shooting up the sky, as the Eid is a week ahead and it seems that this year the prices have increased manifolds, out of reach of the masses owing to poverty and high prices.
This Sacrificial action as practiced by Holy Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) is an essential religious right in the memory of the sacrifice performed by Prophet Ibrahim (A.S.) to sacrifice their best domestic animals like cow, camel, sheep, ram, or goat as a symbol of Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his only son. And today, instead of giving sanctity to this practice of slaughtering by lowering the prices of animals in order to easy the sacrifices for the people but their prices geared up.
Animals from different areas of the country like Sargodha, Khushab and other parts have started arriving in the “Mandi” of Islamabad. But the rates of the animals are beyond the reach of common men which are disappointing them severely. But it is inevitable to buy something for the sacrifice. The prices of goats and sheep have also increased by up to 30 percent.
“The average prices of the animals are more than 35,000 which are out of reach of a common man. I started haggling with the retailer for buying a goat. Lessening down the discussion to the price of one animal, the seller after 25 minutes of rigorous bargaining, offered his lowest price of Rs35, 000. Certainly the price was no way near my budget and out of frustration,” Mumtaz Hassan a purchaser there said while talking to INFN.
Shafiq Muhammad a clerk who was present in the mandi along with his brother said, “I have come here to buy a goat but I got astonished when I inquired about the prices of some of the animals here in the mandi. Vendors are selling goats above Rs30, 000. When I told him the goat should not cost me more than 10,000 he instantly said “It was some four years back that a goat would cost 10, 000 but not now.”
Prices have skyrocketed this year. Olds days were so good, when people used to buy a couple of goats for the same price which retailers demand today for a single animal.
Huge rush of the residents of the Islamabad were observed in the I-10 Mandi who have come for buying the sacrificial animals. People getting disappointed while inquiring the prices of the animals because it were beyond their buying capacity.