Desperation over inflation undercuts typically booming Eid trade at Islamabad cattle market

This photograph taken on June 23, 2023, shows a general view of an animal market for the Muslim annual festival of Eid Al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice, on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. (AN Photo)
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Updated 27 June 2023
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Desperation over inflation undercuts typically booming Eid trade at Islamabad cattle market

  • Many buyers at Islamabad’s main cattle market said they couldn’t afford livestock for the ritual sacrifice 
  • Sellers complained they had to source animals at exorbitant rates this year, rearing cattle more expensive 

ISLAMABAD: On the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, thousands of sacrificial animals are up for sale at a cattle market especially set up ahead of Eid Al-Adha later this week. 

There’s just one problem: there are very few customers, as millions of Pakistanis reckon with record inflation.  

Known as the “Feast of Sacrifice,” the revered observance of Eid Al-Adha coincides with the final rites of the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia. It is a joyous occasion, of which food is a hallmark. Many Muslims celebrate the four-day feast by ritually slaughtering livestock and distributing the meat among family, friends and the poor. 

But with Pakistan’s annual inflation rate rising to 37.97 percent in May, setting a national record for the second month, many buyers at Islamabad’s main cattle market said they couldn’t afford the livestock for the ritual sacrifice while sellers complained they had to source the animals at exorbitant rates this year and rearing the cattle cost them three times more than before. 

At Islamabad’s cattle market last week, a thin crowd was evidence that desperation over the cost of living has undercut the typically booming holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep. 

“We bought 20 animals and have sold only five so far,” seller Nusrat Ali Khan told Arab News at the market, which is spread over 15,000 hectares and can accommodate around 6,000 animals.




A local cattle vendor poses with his buffalo at the animal market for the Muslim annual festival of Eid Al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice, in Islamabad on June 23, 2023. (AN Photo)

 At least 4,000 animals have been brought to the market from different parts of the country ahead of Eid Al-Adha. 

“We can’t really see any customers. The expenses are quite a lot and customers are not coming.” 

Khan wondered if he would be able to sell any of his animals before Eid, which falls on Thursday in Pakistan.  

“If they are sold, only then we can earn something for our children,” he said. 

Buyers complained sellers’ prices were unfair. 

“My budget was somewhere around Rs300,000 ($1,047) to Rs350,000 ($1,222) but when we came here, the animal which should be Rs350,000 is priced at Rs700,000 ($2,445) and the Rs700,000 animal is available at Rs1,400,000 ($4,890),” buyer Shaikh Romail said. 

“The rates are double, and it was not what we expected.” 




This photograph taken on June 23, 2023, shows three bulls, priced over $2,400 each. present at the Islamabad animal market for the Muslim annual festival of Eid Al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital. (AN Photo)

Explaining the high rates this year, Raja Tahir, the cattle market contractor, said rearing the cattle was neither an easy nor a cheap task. 

“It is difficult to take care of them. You can gauge that from the fact that what you can’t afford to eat yourself, you feed them,” Tahir told Arab News, saying sellers fed wheat, milk, ghee, barley, nuts, and other natural ingredients to their animals to enhance their beauty, weight, and physique. 

But the higher cost has meant fewer customers. 

“Customers are fewer as compared to the number of animals [in the market],” Azhar Siddiqui, who was shopping for a goat, said. 

“The buying power has been affected due to inflation. This will have an effect, people will sacrifice less as compared to the past. People who used to buy full animals will now go for buying parts.” 


COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries

Updated 4 sec ago
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COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries

  • Introducing the plan, lead negotiator from Azerbaijan, Yalchin Rafiyev, emphasized how balanced the plan was
  • “We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said

BAKU, Azerbaijan: Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.
The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations.
So the host Azerbaijan presidency with its dawn-released package of proposals did manage to unite a fractured world on climate change, but it was only in their unease and outright distaste for the plan. Negotiators at the talks — known as COP29 — in Baku, are trying to close the gap between the $1.3 trillion the developing world says is needed in climate finance and the few hundred billion that negotiators say richer nations have been prepared to give.
Negotiators slam an ‘unbalanced’ draft
Introducing the plan, lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev emphasized how balanced the plan was, but all sides kept saying it was anything but balanced and pointed time was running out.
“We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said.
Poor nations blasted both rich nations and the presidency with Honduras delegate Malcolm Bryan complaining that the plan was a “completely unbalanced text that doesn’t bring us any closer to a landing .... It is high time for developed countries put their numbers on the table.’’
The EU’s climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra called the draft “imbalanced, unworkable, and not acceptable.”
In a statement, the COP29 Presidency stressed that the drafts “are not final.”
“The COP29 Presidency’s door is always open, and we welcome any bridging proposals that the parties wish to present,” the Presidency said in a statement. It added that possible numbers for a finance goal will be released in the next iteration of the draft.
COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev convened the Qurultay — a traditional Azerbaijani meeting — where negotiators spoke to hear all sides and hammer out a compromise. He said that “after hearing all views, we will outline a way forward regarding future iterations.”
No figure for climate cash leaves many disappointed
Independent experts say that at least $1 trillion is needed in finance to help transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy like solar and wind, better adapt to the effects of climate change and pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather.
Esa Ainuu, from the small Pacific island of Niue said, slammed the lack of a number in the draft deal.
“For us in the Pacific, this is critical for us,” Ainuu said. “We can’t escape to the desert. We can’t escape somewhere else. This is reality for us. If finance is not bringing any positive, (then) why’re we coming to COP?”
She added: “I don’t even know if we’re going to be here for a COP 30 or COP 31. Something needs to happen.”
Adao Barbosa, a top negotiator from the Indian ocean nation of Timor-Leste said all developing countries are unhappy with the climate finance deal. As things stand, the deal is weak, Barbosa said.
Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, expressed disappointment at the lack of a figure. “We came here to talk about money. The way you measure money is with numbers. We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.
Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said he was “at a loss for words at how disappointed we are at this stage to have come this far without serious numbers on the table and serious engagement from the developed countries.”
He said that some developed nations “are slowly waking up” to the fact that keeping warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times will require over a trillion dollars in finance. “But many are still asleep at the wheel,” he said.
There’s a lot of work left to do
There are three big parts of the issue where negotiators need to find agreement: How big the numbers are, how much is grants or loans, and who contributes.
Official observers of the talks from the International Institute of Sustainable Development who are allowed to sit in on the closed meetings reported that negotiators have now agreed on not expanding the list of countries that will contribute to global climate funds — at least at these talks. Linda Kalcher, of the think tank Strategic Partnerships, said on the question of grants or loans, the draft text suggests “the need for grants and better access to finance.”
She added that the lack of numbers in the draft text could be a “bluff.” The COP29 presidency, which prepares the texts “should know more ... than what they put on the table,” she said.
Other areas that are being negotiated include commitments to slash planet-warming fossil fuels and how to adapt to climate change. But they’ve also seen little movement.
European nations criticized the package of proposals for not being strong enough in reiterating last year’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels.
“The current text offers no progress” on efforts to cut the world’s emissions of heat-trapping gases, said Germany delegation chief Jennifer Morgan. “This cannot and must not be our response to the suffering of millions of people around the world. We must do better.”
Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s environment minister, also criticized “backsliding” on cutting fossil fuels from last year’s deal.


Police say gunmen open fire on vehicles in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing at least eight

Updated 5 min 26 sec ago
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Police say gunmen open fire on vehicles in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing at least eight

  • Attack happened in Kurram, district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province 
  • Sectarian clashes have killed dozens of people in the region in recent months

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles carrying members of the Shiite minority in restive northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding others, police said.

The attack happened in Kurram, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where clashes between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites have killed dozens of people in recent months.

No one has claimed responsibility but Kurram has been a scene of sectarian violence in recent months, and the latest violence came a week after authorities reopened a key highway in the region after keeping it closed for weeks following deadly clashes.

Local police official Nusrat Hussain said several vehicles carrying passengers were traveling in a convoy from the city of Parachinar to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when gunmen opened fire.

He said at least five passengers were in a critical condition at a hospital.

Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million population of Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the two communities.


Investment deals on the table as Belarus president to visit Pakistan next week

Updated 25 min 21 sec ago
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Investment deals on the table as Belarus president to visit Pakistan next week

  • Pakistan and Belarus, world’s 74th-largest economy by GDP, celebrated thirty years of diplomatic relations this year
  • Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 

ISLAMABAD: The president of the Republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Grigorievich Lukashenko, will be in Islamabad on a three-day official visit from Monday, with several investment deals and memorandums of understanding likely to be discussed, the foreign office said on Thursday.

Pakistan has been pushing for foreign investment from allies old and new in recent months in a bid to shore up its $350 billion economy as it navigates a tough reforms agenda mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“President of the republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, will undertake an official visit to Pakistan from Nov. 25-27,” the foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said at a weekly press briefing. “President Lukashenko will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and discuss the areas of bilateral cooperation,”

Pakistan and Belarus, the world’s 74th-largest economy by GDP, celebrated thirty years of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and maintains an embassy in Minsk.

The prime minister of Belarus was in Islamabad earlier this year where he met his counterpart as well as the chief of the Pakistan army, among other key leaders. 

In September, Pakistan and Belarus discussed different options for a joint venture to establish a tractor plant in the country and reached a consensus on collaborating on a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine to protect cattle, as well as on the capacity building of agricultural engineers in machinery design.

They also agreed to enhance cooperation in the sectors of livestock and seeds, and work together on the mechanization of agriculture and on increasing market access for agricultural and livestock products. Belarus also wants to set up a veterinary medicine plant in Pakistan.

The First Pakistan-Belarus Joint Economic Commission (JEC) was held in 2015 in which the two countries agreed to initiate joint ventures in the textile, pharmaceutical and lighting solution industries and share technological expertise.


Pakistan says 30% of its vehicles will be electric by 2030

Updated 58 min 25 sec ago
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Pakistan says 30% of its vehicles will be electric by 2030

  • Hybrid electric vehicle sales in Pakistan have more than doubled in past year
  • Global EV giant BYD Group has obtained manufacturing license in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Privatization Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said on Thursday 30% of vehicles in Pakistan would be converted to electric by 2030, state media widely reported, as the South Asian country takes step to combat air pollution and other climate change effects. 

The minister was echoing the government’s New Energy Vehicle (NEV) policy released on Wednesday, which is aimed at transitioning 30 percent of all new vehicles — imported and locally manufactured — to electric power by 2030.

Hybrid electric vehicle sales in Pakistan have more than doubled in the past year. BYD Pakistan, a partnership between China’s BYD and Pakistani car group Mega Motors, said in September up to 50 percent of all vehicles bought in Pakistan by 2030 will be electrified in some form in line with global targets.

Warren Buffett-backed Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD announced its entry into Pakistan in August, making the nation of 250 million people one of its newest markets.

“Pakistan aims to convert thirty percent of its vehicles to electric by 2030,” Khan said as he addressed the “Transport and Digital Middle Corridor and Beyond” session at the ongoing UN COP29 summit in Baku.

“Significant steps are underway to support the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in Pakistan … the government is actively working on infrastructure development for EVs, including the installation of charging stations.”

Local media reported in August that standards for EV charging stations had been drafted by the power ministry, with the government considering offering them affordable electricity.

Under the new EV policy, the government has introduced subsidies of Rs50,000 for electric motorcycles and Rs200,000 for three-wheelers like rickshaws, with a total allocation of Rs4 billion. These subsidies will be distributed through auctions. So far, two companies have been granted licenses, and 31 more applications are under review.

The policy also incorporates a reduction in the policy rate from 22 to 15 percent, with financing available at a 3 percent Kibor (Karachi Interbank Offered Rate) and the government covering the financial cost. Consumers will pay monthly installments of around Rs9,000 over two years, an amount lower than their projected fuel savings.

A Credit Loss Guarantee managed by the Finance Division will ensure no financial burden on the Ministry of Industries or consumers.

Additional initiatives include offering free electric bikes or scooters to 120 high-achieving students and reducing duties on EV components to encourage local manufacturing. The government is also set to establish a New Energy Fund and a New Energy Vehicle Center to support these measures.

BYD Pakistan is collaborating with two oil marketing companies to establish a charging infrastructure network and aims to establish 20 to 30 charging stations within the initial phases concurrent with the rollout of its cars.

BYD Pakistan will initially sell fully assembled vehicles, which are subject to higher import charges than vehicles shipped in parts and assembled locally. Dewan Motors is also set to launch its EVs under the completely knocked down (CKD) license.


Pakistan voices ‘deep regret’ as US vetoes UN Security Council resolution on Gaza ceasefire

Updated 21 November 2024
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Pakistan voices ‘deep regret’ as US vetoes UN Security Council resolution on Gaza ceasefire

  • 15-member UN council voted on a resolution put forward by 10 non-permanent members 
  • Only US voted against, using its veto as permanent council member to block resolution

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday expressed “deep regret” over the United States vetoing a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, which has drawn criticism of the Biden administration for once again blocking international action aimed at halting Israel’s war in the besieged enclave. 

The 15-member council voted on a resolution put forward by 10 non-permanent members that called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the 13-month conflict and separately demanded the release of hostages. Only the US voted against it, using its veto as a permanent council member to block the resolution.

“We deeply regret that even now a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire has been vetoed by the sole negative vote of a permanent member of the Council,” Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Munir Akram, told the state APP news agency. 

Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly called for the immediate release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.

“A durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity, and for that reason, the United States could not support it,” he said.

Wood said the US had sought compromise, but the text of the proposed resolution would have sent a “dangerous message” to Hamas that “there’s no need to come back to the negotiating table.”

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people and displaced nearly all of the enclave’s population at least once. It was launched in response to an attack by Hamas fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

With inputs from Reuters