KARACHI: While Eid Al-Adha generates billions of rupees through the sale and purchase of sacrificial animals, allied businesses like animal fodder sellers and knife makers also thrive in Pakistan, traders said, underscoring the religious festival’s impact on livelihoods and local commerce.
Last year Pakistanis sacrificed over six million animals worth around Rs531 billion ($1.9 billion) over Eid, according to the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA).
“Eid offers employment opportunities to thousands of people across the city,” said Syed Amjad Ali, an animal feed seller who had set up his stall in the Burns Road area of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and commercial hub.
Indeed, a variety of animal feeds go up on sale at stalls around the city, ranging from bales of hay to more nutrient-rich feeds, while the prices of animal fodder typically increase in the run-up to Eid due to high demand. Sellers capitalize on the opportunity to earn additional income while it is also convenient for members of the public to find things like feed, knives and wooden blocks at makeshift stalls set up in their neighborhoods rather than traveling far to purchase them.
“It is easier for people living in the neighborhood, even a child can come and buy the feed,” said Ali, who set up his stall two weeks before Eid. ” In this area there will be about 8-10 stalls and 6-8 people are working at each stall.”
Another business that thrives ahead of Eid is that of butchering tools, most importantly knives and cleavers. Retailers report a “significant boost” in sales before the holiday, when markets and shops across Pakistan stock up on knife varieties.
“We have been doing this for 50 years, since my grandfather’s time. Every year, when the moon of Bakra Eid (Dhul-Hijjah) is sighted, we set up this stall to facilitate consumers,” said seller Muhammad Sarfraz, whose customers include families as well as amateur and professional butchers.
Sarfraz also sells related materials like skewers, grills, stands and various types of pans.
Sales of wooden blocks on which butchers cut up meat after slaughtering the animals also see a boom ahead of Eid.
“People come to buy wooden meat cutting blocks from our saw machine,” vendor Paras Khan said, adding that his business picked up pace two months before Eid.
Meanwhile, the boom in Eid side businesses also creates seasonal employment opportunities.
“This is the system of Allah,” Muhammad Siddique, a resident of Karachi’s Saddar area, said as he bought feed for his two cows, “where livelihood is created for many people including transporters, feed sellers, and decorative material sellers for animals.”
“I have bought two goats and have come to buy ropes for them,” said Yousaf Gul Ahmed, a young child standing at a stall. “I have bought two good goats.”
Small businesses boom ahead of Eid Al-Adha, invigorating local commerce
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Small businesses boom ahead of Eid Al-Adha, invigorating local commerce
- Allied businesses like animal fodder, knives and wooden blocks thrive in weeks before Eid
- Boom in Eid side businesses also creates seasonal employment opportunities in Pakistan
Pakistani companies attend first-ever Al Hamba Festival to attract mango imports from Qatar
- Event kicked off on Thursday and will go on until July 6, has been organized by embassy of Pakistan in Doha
- Pakistan is world’s fourth-largest mango producer and agriculture accounts for almost a quarter of its GDP
ISLAMABAD: The ongoing first-ever Al Hamba Festival in the Qatari capital of Doha is celebrating the “richness” of Pakistani mangoes with the hope of attracting Qatari importers to place orders for mangoes and other agricultural produce from the South Asian country, state media reported on Sunday.
Pakistan is the world’s fourth-largest mango producer and agriculture accounts for almost a quarter of its GDP. But Pakistani mangoes have faced export challenges in recent years due to concerns over adverse weather and pests and fruit flies that can threaten the agricultural standards of importing countries.
To attract Qatari importers, several popular varieties of mangoes such as Sidhri, Chaunsa, Safeed Chaunsa, Anwar Ratol and Duseri have been put up on display at the Al Hamba Festival being held at Souq Waqif.
The event, which kicked off on Thursday and will go on until July 6, has been organized by the embassy of Pakistan in Doha in collaboration with the Celebrations Organizing Committee of the Private Engineering Office and features over 43 companies and 100 outlets.
“First-ever Al Hamba Festival is an opportunity to savor a variety of the finest Pakistani mangoes besides promoting cultural exchange between the two nations through the universal language of food,” the state-run APP news agency quoted Pakistan’s Ambassador to Qatar, Muhammad Aejaz, as saying.
“The Al Hamba Festival promises to be a memorable event for families and food enthusiasts, offering a rich tapestry of flavors and cultural experiences.”
The envoy expressed confidence that the event would “attract importers in Qatar to place orders not only for mangoes, but for other agricultural produce including rice, food products and other fruit.”
The festival is hosting a variety of exhibitors, including importers, retailers, and exporters showcasing processed foods and dry mangoes. Notable participants include Zuhair Impex, Akin Foods, Kashan Trader’s, Friday Fresh Pvt Ltd, Naurus Pvt Ltd, Pak Khyber Traders, Aaj Enterprises, Al Hamad Agro Chemicals and Swat International Trading Company. Major retail stores participating include Al Baladi Hypermarket, Marza Hypermarket, Sunder Mart and Al Hemaliya Trading.
In addition to mangoes, the festival also features seasonal fruits like falsa, jamun, and peaches. Various Pakistani cuisine are another highlight of the festival with many local restaurants and cafés offering a diverse menu to showcase the culinary heritage of Pakistan.
Pakistan launches polio eradication drive tomorrow targeting over 11 million children
- Campaign to target select districts of Punjab, Sindh, KP provinces
- Pakistan has reported eight new polio cases in 2024 so far
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is set to launch a polio eradication campaign from tomorrow, Monday, in selected districts of Pakistan’s Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to immunize more than 11 million children under the age of five, state-media said.
Polio is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death. The virus has been eliminated in developed nations but persists in parts of India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan has reported eight polio cases in 2024, six of them from the impoverished southwestern Balochistan province.
Polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan are complicated by the belief among many Pakistanis, particularly those residing in the conservative tribal areas, that the medicine is a Western campaign aimed at sterilizing the country’s population or a cover for Western spies. In 2012, the local Taliban had ordered a ban on immunization against polio in some tribal districts. At least 11 policemen have been killed this year while on security duty during vaccination campaigns that are frequently targeted by militants. Dozens of polio workers have also lost their lives over the decades.
“A varied-duration anti-polio campaign will start on Monday in selected districts of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Radio Pakistan said.
A seven-day anti-polio drive would target more than five million children in six high-risk districts of Lahore, Bahawalnagar, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh and Gujranwala in the central-eastern Punjab province while 4.7 million children would be vaccinated in 16 districts of Karachi.
A five-day polio vaccination campaign would also begin in 11 districts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and administer polio drops to around 1.3 million children. The campaign will take place in the Swabi, Swat, Tank, North Waziristan, South Waziristan and selected union councils of D I Khan, Peshawar, Kurram, Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts.
The number of cases of polio has steadily declined since 2014 when 306 were reported in Pakistan.
Pakistan has to contend with extra suspicion of immunization drives because of the 2011 US special forces raid inside the country that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. A Pakistani doctor was accused of using a fake vaccination campaign to collect DNA samples that the CIA was believed to have been using to verify bin Laden’s identity. The doctor remains jailed in Pakistan.
Two Pakistani researchers win prestigious UK prize for team impact project
- Prof Dr. M Iqbal Chaudhry and Prof Dr. Sammer Yousaf belong to Karachi University
- Leading scientists from UK, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina also took part in project
ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistani researchers have won the “Outstanding Team Impact Prize” by the United Kingdom Medical Research Council (MRC), state-run media reported this week, recognizing their collaborative approach to medical research.
According to the UK Research and Innovation website, the Outstanding Team Impact prize celebrates a team whose collaborative team science approach made a major impact on medical research. It rewards teams that bring together researchers and skilled specialists with diverse scientific backgrounds and skills to address complex and pressing human health and research challenges.
“A team of researchers from the University of Karachi has been honored with the prestigious ‘Outstanding Team Impact Prize’ by the UK MRC,” the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said, naming Prof Dr. M Iqbal Chaudhry and Prof Dr. Sammer Yousaf from the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry and the Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research respectively.
They were recognized for a research project titled “A Global Network of Tropical Neglected Diseases” that integrated diverse expertise from various scientific backgrounds.
The project, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund and led by Durham University in the UK, brought together leading scientists from the UK, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Pakistan to combat protozoan NTDs specifically leishmaniasis and the Chagas disease. NTDs are a diverse group of conditions caused by a variety of pathogens (including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and toxins) and associated with devastating health, social and economic consequences.
Pakistan, Uzbekistan agree to set up joint chamber of commerce, enhance direct flights
- Pakistan aims to enhance its role as a pivotal trade and transit hub connecting the landlocked Central Asian republics
- Recent weeks have seen flurry of visits, investment talks and economic activity between Pakistan and Central Asian states
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani ministry of commerce and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan organized the Pakistan-Uzbekistan Logistics Forum on Saturday in Tashkent, where officials agreed to set up a joint chamber of commerce and enhance direct flights.
Pakistan aims to enhance its role as a pivotal trade and transit hub connecting the landlocked Central Asian republics with the rest of the world, leveraging its strategic geographical position. In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of visits, investment talks and economic activity between Pakistan and Central Asian states and earlier this week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a special meeting attended by senior government ministers on how to enhance relations with the region in the areas of economy and investment.
“The [Pak-Uzbek] Forum was followed by B2B meetings between the Pakistani and Uzbek companies from the Logistics and Transport Sector,” a commerce ministry statement said. “More than 300 B2B meetings took place between the 14 participating Pakistani companies and 50 plus Uzbek companies who attended the Forum.”
On the sidelines, CE TDAP, Zubair Motiwala, held a meeting with the deputy chairman of the Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry in which “both sides agreed to enhance bilateral trade, improve connectivity (including direct flight operations), and establish a Joint Chamber with Pakistan.”
They also discussed visa issues for the business community and sector-specific barriers.
State -run APP reported officials from both countries at the logistics forum “agreed to enhance bilateral trade, improve connectivity (including direct flight operations), and establish a Joint Chamber with Pakistan.”
The Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, Bakhtiyor Saidov, was in Islamabad on an official visit on May 8-9 with a special focus on trade and connectivity.
Pakistan national assembly speaker calls for parliamentary supremacy on International Day of Parliamentarism
- Annually observed on June 30, the day marks the founding of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 1889 in Paris
- The observance is significant in Pakistan due to its history of military coups, parliamentary dissolution
ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has highlighted the significance of parliamentary supremacy for the development and growth of democratic institutions, as the world marks International Day of Parliamentarism today, Sunday, which is annually celebrated on June 30.
The date was chosen to coincide with the founding of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1889 in Paris, an organization dedicated to fostering dialogue and cooperation between parliaments worldwide.
In Pakistan, this observance holds particular significance as the country’s history of parliamentary dissolution during military coups illustrates the fragile nature of people’s democratic representation in the nation’s political fabric.
Sadiq called it an important day in a statement issued by his office a day earlier.
“This day is significant as it highlights the crucial role Parliaments play in promoting democratic values, human rights, and the rule of law,” he was quoted as saying.
He reiterated Pakistani parliament’s commitment to upholding these principles and ensuring the democratic institution’s continued growth and development.
“A strong Parliament is the cornerstone of a stable democracy, and it is essential for ensuring the protection and promotion of democratic values,” he continued, adding: “The National Assembly is committed to strengthening the institution and ensuring the supremacy of Parliament in the country.”
The speaker described Pakistan as an “active member of the IPU,” pointing toward its commitment to democracy and sustainable development worldwide.
