Lahore High Court. PHOTO: LHC.GOV.PK
Lahore High Court on Friday took up a petition seeking a ban on a meat business for offering customers the facility to slaughter a sacrificial animal for Eidul Azha on their behalf and deliver the meat to their doorstep.
Justice Shahid Waheed issued a notice to the company asking it to respond to the petition by September 16.
Petitioner Mian Javed Rasheed, a resident of Model Town, also sought directions for the Livestock Department to review the case for possible violations of relevant laws.
He submitted that by slaughtering sacrificial animals for its customers the company would be entering a contract with them for which it will charge a fee. He said this was un-Islamic and illegal.
He said advertisements of the business in the print and electronic media mentioned the phrase Qurbani Main Asani (easy sacrifice). He said such advertisements gave an impression that slaughtering a sacrificial animal on Eid was an arduous task. Such a view of the act of sacrifice was against Islamic teachings, he said.
Further, he said the advertisements mentioned that customers needed only to place an order with the business. He said the respondent was defrauding people by advertising that it would deliver meat of the best quality animal. He said the business would select sacrificial animals, slaughter them and deliver the meat to the customers. The customers would not get a chance to see the animal before it was slaughtered, he said. He added that this was against Quranic teachings and the prophet’s (peace be upon him) sunnah (practice).
The petitioner said the company had been offering the service of slaughtering a sacrificial animal and delivering its meat to the customer for several years. He said in 2013 he had conveyed his reservations to the company and asked it to stop the activity. He said the company had assured him that it would not continue the activity next year. However, he said the company was again offering the service ahead of Eidul Azha.
This year, he said he had obtained an edict (fatwa) on the matter which stated that it was un-Islamic to do such a business. The edict, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, said that people should themselves perform the sacrifice of an animal on Eidul Azha. If it was impossible for them to do so, they could donate money for the purpose to an institute ‘believed to be on the right path’.
The practice of donating money for the sacrifice of animals on Eidul Azha is widespread in the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2015.
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