September 23, 2011

Pakistan's Peshawar imposes cattle, meat transportation ban

Peshawar imposed ban on cattle and meat transportation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday (Sep 20) to all tribal agencies for indefinite period and has cancelled all permits issued today (Sep 23).

The decision has been taken during a high-level meeting with Chief Secretary KPK Ghulam Dastagir Akhtar.

The government took the decision on a call attention notice moved during the provincial assembly. Khyber Pakhtuankhwa Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the action has been taken after receiving a lot of complaints regarding smuggling of cattle and meat to a foreign country in guise of permits issued for FATA.

Due to smuggling, the shortage of animals and meat has been created in the province and people have started facing difficulties due to high prices of meat.

The Spokesman of Khyber Pakthunkhwa government said imposition of immediate ban on these items was inevitable for the sake of the welfare of people. He said that a committee under chairmanship of Provincial Interior Secretary has been constituted to devise a comprehensive policy and procedure to avoid cattle smuggling and fulfil meat's requirements of tribal agencies in future.