KARACHI: Veterinary Services Department of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation with the assistance of Bhains Colony police has stopped construction of a commercial complex on 5.48 acres of an abattoir’s land. KMC officials and police stopped ongoing construction of a boundary wall on the land, which was reportedly being carried out by a private builder in connivance with some abattoir’s tenants of the veterinary department, officials of civic entity said. Around 1,183 feet illegally constructed boundary wall was dismantled, officials added. Earlier, Dr Farooq Ahmed, KMC Veterinary Services Department senior director, had informed Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar about the illegal construction and had asked him to take action against encroachers. On November 2017, a team of KMC Veterinary Services Department, visited the premises of the slaughterhouse and observed that some elements were planning to encroach upon the land to construct a commercial site there. Officials alleged that Multix International Corporation, a firm which was given 15-year contract in June, 2007 for running slaughterhouse, besides reactivation of semi-mechanical slaughtering plant under the public-private partnership, was involved in the illegal activity. KMC officials said that the firm had also failed to plant trees within the premises on the agreed terms with the civic entity. Talking to Daily Times, Dr Farooq said that any such attempt in future would be restricted with full force. He said that the department was also considering withdrawing the contract of the firm. “As we are in litigation with the firm so it will take some time,” he maintained. The department and the firm are currently in litigation over the issue of rent payment after some cheques given by the firm were bounced. The slaughterhouse was built during Ayub Khan’s regime. The Russian government during the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s tenure had gifted slaughtering equipment and machinery for the abattoir. Some civil society activists had protested against the mode of slaughtering animals at the abattoir, terming it against the tenets of Islam. However, the slaughterhouse was reactivated during the tenure of Karachi nazim Naimatullah Khan from 2001-2005. Published in Daily Times, March 6th 2018.