������Ƶ

KARACHI: The Eid Al-Adha festival should be the busiest time of the year at Asia’s largest cattle market in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth area. But soaring prices have driven away many of the people who would usually buy cows and goats to sacrifice on the Muslim holiday.

One of Islam’s two main festivals, Eid Al-Adha marks the climax of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, when Muslims slaughter animals to commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son on God’s command, often distributing meat to the poor.

But this year, people like Nasir Khan, 25, say higher prices mean they cannot afford to carry out the important ritual.

“I can’t afford it this time,” Khan told Arab News, saying he had opted out of a seven-member group he had been a part of for years, which pooled money to buy sacrificial animals as a collective activity. 

This year, the price of an average-sized cow or bull at the Sohrab Goth market had risen by around 94 percent to Rs330,000 [$1,201], said Abdul Jabbar, another buyer who did not disclose his age or profession and had decided against buying once he discovered the steep prices. 

On a hot afternoon earlier this month, Jabbar strolled through the Karachi market as hundreds of cattle sat idle under makeshift tents. 

“The price trend is very high, almost double from last year,” he said.

“The animal we had bought at Rs 170,000 ($611.51) last year is now up for sale at as much as Rs330,000 ($1,187.05).”

“MEAT EXPORTS”

Inflation in Pakistan peaked as high as 38 percent in May 2023. In May 2025, it rose to 3.5 percent, following a significant drop to 0.3 percent in April. But while food and fuel prices have somewhat decreased, financial experts say the prices of sacrificial animals have gone up, mainly due to increasing meat exports. 

In the fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistan’s meat exports reached a record $512 million, a 20 percent increase from the previous year. This growth was driven by a 24 percent increase in export volume, reaching 123,515 tones. 

While the majority of Pakistan’s meat production is consumed domestically, the country has seen significant growth in exports, particularly to Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and China.

Increasing meat exports reduces the number of cattle available domestically and during Eid Al-Adha season, when demand is seasonal and peaks sharply, supply becomes constrained. 

“Price hike is due to meat exports and inflation in previous years,” Ahsan Mehanti, chief executive officer at Arif Habib Commodities Limited, explained. 

“We have seen that there is a major increase in the export of livestock in the past three years, around more than 50 percent.”

Zaki Abro, a spokesperson for the Sohrab Goth cattle market, attributed the surge in prices to the availability of fewer animals due to thousands being killed in recent floods.

In 2022, Pakistan experienced devastating floods that resulted in the loss of over 1.1 million livestock. This figure includes approximately 500,000 livestock in Balochistan, over 428,000 in Sindh, and over 205,100 in Punjab provinces. 

“On average the prices of small animals have risen by as much as Rs20,000 [$71.94] while the big animals have gone pricier by Rs 70,000 [$251.80],” Abro said. 

“MARKET IS DULL”

The effects of high prices were visible at the Karachi cattle market last week, with few buyers present despite it being spread over an area of around 1,200 acres and 175,000 cattle up for sale. 

Livestock merchants Muhammad Ismail and Obaidullah confirmed a drop in the number of buyers.

“We have a lot of animals still unsold,” Ismail, 26, said. “This could be maybe because of inflation.”

The traders blamed the high rates they were charging on the higher rates they had to pay wholesalers and the cattle market’s administration. The cost of animal feed had also sky-rocketed, they said. Global supply chain disruptions, local market volatility, inflation, and currency devaluation have all contributed to this rise. 

The cost of fodder had surged by nearly 50 percent, impacting cattle farming, merchants said. 

“Our eight to nine months farming cost for each of these animals this year increased to Rs250,000 [$899.28] from Rs150,000 [$539.57] a year ago,” Ismail explained. 

Trader Obaidullah said sellers also had to pay a fee of Rs30,000 [$107.91] per animal to the cattle market authorities. 

“Last year the market performed well,” Ismail added. 

“All of our animals had sold out. More than half of the market had emptied by this time last year. This year the market is dull.”

ISLAMABAD: The head of Pakistan’s parliamentary delegation constituted to visit key world capitals and present Islamabad’s stance on last month’s military standoff with India said on Tuesday New Delhi was emulating Israel’s belligerence in the region, urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to be guided by “the worst examples possible.”

The remarks were made by former Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari during a media interaction at the United Nations Correspondents Association.

The Pakistani delegation arrived in New York on Monday as part of Islamabad’s diplomatic outreach amid heightened tensions with India, despite a recent ceasefire. It has held a series of meetings with top international diplomats, urging the global community to help the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors enter a comprehensive dialogue to peacefully resolve their differences.

Responding to a question during the news conference, Bhutto-Zardari drew parallels between the Israeli settler program in the West Bank and India’s post-2019 demographic changes in Kashmir, describing Modi as a “poor copy” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“As far as India being inspired by the Israeli government, unfortunately, it’s being inspired in all the wrong ways,” he said. “Its conduct outside of international law, its violation of international governance, the United Nations Charter, the arrogance with which it thought it could get away with this — that you can just scream terrorism and it justifies that you can attack any Muslim country at whim.”

“In short, it’s based on this building of precedents that we’ve seen over time — be it in the context of the Iraq War, and obviously the actions within Gaza recently have inspired some of the actions by the Indian government,” he added. “But Mr. Modi is sort of the Temu version of Netanyahu — sort of a poor copy — and we call upon the Indian government to not be inspired by the worst examples possible.”

Bhutto-Zardari, who chairs the Pakistan Peoples Party, called on both India and Pakistan to reclaim their shared heritage as heirs of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization and reflect that in their conduct.

“One of the most incredible things about the Indus Valley Civilization is that with all the archaeology that’s gone on, we’ve not found a single weapon at all,” he said. “They had great advancements — urban planning, agriculture, water distribution, even sewage systems — but not a single weapon.”

“How far we’ve come from our roots,” he continued. “That grand Indus Valley Civilization, which didn’t have a single weapon, is now armed to the teeth.”

The former Pakistani foreign minister said Modi could either pursue peace and become a true heir of the Indus Valley Civilization or continue down a path of conflict.

“Mr. Modi started off as being perceived as the Butcher of Gujarat,” he said, referring to the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the Indian state where Modi was chief minister. “He went on to become the Butcher of Kashmir, and he aspires to be the Butcher of the Indus Valley Civilization with his assault on the Indus Waters Treaty.”

The Pakistani delegation also met with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at UN Headquarters on Tuesday.

Bhutto-Zardari delivered a letter from Pakistan’s prime minister and briefed the UN chief on Islamabad’s position in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on tourists, which New Delhi had blamed on Pakistan.

He rejected India’s allegations against Islamabad as “baseless and premature,” and criticized its unilateral military actions, civilian casualties and the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty — calling these actions a dangerous escalation with potentially destabilizing consequences for the region.

Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan remained committed to international law and the principles of the UN Charter, while warning against what he called India’s attempt to establish a “dangerous new normal” marked by unilateralism and the use of force in a nuclear environment.

According to an official readout, Secretary-General Guterres assured the delegation the UN would fully engage in promoting peace and stability in South Asia and continue to support all efforts to reduce tensions and resolve disputes.