ISLAMABAD - The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is delaying the establishment of a slaughterhouse in the federal capital to bait in the meat-sellers for a hi-tech facility, which according to them is against the Islamic methods of slaughtering. During the 52 years of its establishment, Islamabad is yet to have its own abattoir as the city's population is nearing the mark of two million.
Though the CDA had already finalized the PC-1 of the project but now the high ups in the authority wanted to delay it and replace the project with a hi-tech facility. As per the existing plan, the facility would be developed on 20 acres of land in sector H-9/3.
"We are demanding the CDA to set up the facility for manual slaughtering facility instead of making us to wait for more years to have any modern facility," said head of the meat-sellers association Khurshid Qureshi.
He viewed that the customers as well as the shopkeepers felt more satisfied with the manual slaughtering as it was regarded as the proper Islamic slaughtering method.
However, replacing the human element with machinery from this process would trigger another controversy, he added. He said under the CDA plan, the machines would be installed at the planned abattoir that would slaughter as well as remove hide from the animals without any manual involvement.
He said earlier the project was delayed on excuse of non-availability of funds that had been resolved by the community by selling a plot in sector G-10 for Rs. 10.4 million.
He said around 2,000 goats and 450 cows or other species were slaughtered every day in Islamabad and in absence of any facility, the people slaughtered animals at various locations that also raised questions about quality of the meat as in such a case the animals waste was disposed off in the open.