Around 100 hotels in the federal capital are using low standard meat.
According to details, around 10,000 kilogrammes of meat of unfit and aged buffaloes is coming from Taxila to Islamabad where a 100 hotels are consuming it for barbeque, Kabuli rice and seekh kebab. The supplier groups obtain the meat of aged and unfit buffaloes from businessmen at a rate of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 and then sell this meat to the local markets at a rate of Rs 90 per kg. This hazardous meat is supplied to more than eight sectors of Islamabad.
Talking exclusively to Daily Times, Salim who hails from Taxila said, “We are supplying this meat to a 100 hotels of Islamabad as well to other dealers who are also working in the market. They purchase this meat for Rs 100 but their clients are less as their rate is Rs 10 more than ours.”
When asked how this meat can be purchased for Rs 90 whereas the market rate of beef is Rs 370, Salim replied that their aim is to financially support the hotel industry which is already facing crises due to price hike.
He added that the hotels are using this meat to prepare traditional items and cannot be considered toxic as no casualty has been reported after its consumption.
A source has confirmed that on daily basis, 12 to 15 buffaloes are shifted from different cities of Punjab to Taxila and are then slaughtered at underground houses. Their meat is supplied to hotels late in the night, so authorities do not interfere and check the meat’s health quotient.
Medical expert Dr Rahman informed that in recent years, diseases like weak heart, hepatitis, hypertension as well cholesterol issues are increasing in the country’s capital in various areas. There might be other reasons for this as well but consuming substandard food and toxic ingredients is one of them.
The owner of a local hotel, wishing not to be named informed Daily Times that for three months, confessed utilising this meat in his hotel, however he says, they have now halted this practise. He says he only allowed the meat’s utilisation because it was cheap.
Another hotelier, Haider Hashmi, also while talking exclusively to Daily Times said that the price of Rs 20kg rice mixed with fresh meat costs Rs 35,000. The ones using low standard meat bear the cost of Rs 20,000. It’s poisonous meat.
Poisonous meat is not evident in taste as it’s mixed with other ingredients and prepared in a way that no one can notice when tasting it.
District Commissioner Hamza Shafqat remained unavailable for comment.
It’s pertinent to mention that the administration failed to conduct a crackdown on milk mafia in the capital where more than 200 hotels were accused of using toxic and contaminated milk.
Published in Daily Times, October 25th 2018.