KARACHI: A dramatic fall of almost 80 percent in the value of sacrificial animal hides during a rainy Eid Al-Adha in Pakistan has strained the finances of the country’s religious and community welfare organizations, and taken away a huge chunk of raw material for the country’s leather industry, traders and analysts said.
Nearly 10 million animals worth an estimated $3 billion were sacrificed on the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha in 2017. That figure declined to 8.1 million animals last year with their hides and skins worth $32 million according to data shared by the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA).
This year however, Eid skins and hides were valued at $8 million. There were 6.6 million animals sacrificed, at a total value of $1.33 billion.
“Last year, tanneries collected hides and skins worth Rs. 5.2 billion ($32 million) but now, purchases worth Rs. 1.31 billion ($8.2 million) have been made... a decline of 75 percent,” Agha Saidain, Chairman of PTA told Arab News, and added that the decline was “mainly due to rains.”
On the back of record levels of inflation, and a currency devaluation that has seen Pakistan’s rupee losing more than 45 percent of its value against the dollar since last year, this year’s Eid Al-Adha landed in the thick of the monsoon season, with heavy rainfall and flooding affecting tanners’ reluctance to buy the hides which are easily destroyed by water.
Apart from providing almost 30 percent of raw material for Pakistan’s leather industry, the multi-million dollar exchange of hides and skins was the primary contributor to the running of the country’s tens of thousands of religious seminaries, including those that were fronts for banned militant outfits.
After the animal sacrifice, it is customary in Pakistan for people to donate the skins of the animals to religious and welfare organizations, which would in turn sell them to tanners for a profit.
“The hides and skins provided four to five months of financial resources to the madaris,” Nazir Nasir, spokesperson of Jamia Binoria, a Karachi-based Islamic educational institute, told Arab News, and added that the price decline had caused “trouble” for religious institutions.
“But these are temporary phenomena,” he said, “Because the madaris never counted only on this source of revenue.”
This year, members of religious institutions reported that most of the hides and skins they collected in donations were eventually destroyed by rains, as traders simply refused to buy.
“Last year, we fetched Rs. 1,600 to 2,000 on (a single) cow hide, but this year the situation is worse as large quantities of skins are being wasted,” Qazi Sadruddin, director of community services at Al Khidmat, a welfare organization running charity hospitals and orphanages, told Arab News.
This year, there is also added pressure on the money exchanged from the buying and selling of hides and skins, as the country gears up for its next review in October from Paris-based terror financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force amid fears it could be blacklisted and heavily sanctioned if its money trails unwittingly end up in the wrong hands.
When business was booming, Eid Al-Adha generated an extraordinary cash windfall for thinly concealed fronts for outlawed and militant outfits in the country, like the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s charity wing, the Falah-e-Insaniyat, whose head Hafiz Saeed had a $10 million US bounty on his head and was arrested by the Pakistan government in July this year.
“The banned outfits now do not rely on hides and skins business as they have expanded their outreach to other avenues like properties etc.,” Rustam Shah Mohmand, a senior security and political analyst, told Arab News.
In sporadic incidents around the country, there were reports of arrests made by police during the transporting of hides and skins, but by and large, tannery owners said the lack of buying interest was triggered by humid and hot weather conditions.
“Tanners are not ready to waste expensive chemicals (on compromised hides) due to heavy taxation,” PTA Chairman Agha Saidain said.
Pakistan’s leather products’ exports declined by 11 percent to $843 million in fiscal year 2019 from $948 million, Pakistan Bureau of Statistic data shows.
Tanners and leather goods exporters say that artificial leather, or polyurethane, from China has not only dented exports but also suppressed the demand of real leather in the international market, with China, India and Bangladesh investing heavily in technology to capture a major share of the $120 billion global leather market.
“30 to 35 percent of our hides and skins are wasted every year due to lack of modern technology and skills to preserve these products,” Syed Shujaat Ali, Chairman of the Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Arab News.
“In Saudi Arabia they have modern technology available that enables them to preserve the skins and hides on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha,” he added and called for greater research and development of the leather export sector, if the industry was to stay afloat.
Rainy Eid in Pakistan prompts 80 percent fall in value of sacrificial animal hides
Rainy Eid in Pakistan prompts 80 percent fall in value of sacrificial animal hides
- Tanners were reluctant to buy skins and hides, easily destroyed by water, in the thick of monsoon rains
- Resulting strain on finances of religious seminaries, and welfare organisations, including fronts for militant groups
Pakistan vaccinates over 43 million children as last polio drive of 2025 enters 6th day
- Campaign running simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan, last two polio-endemic countries
- Health authorities urge parents and communities to fully cooperate with anti-polio vaccinators
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has vaccinated more than 43.8 million children in five days of its last nationwide polio campaign of 2025, health authorities said on Saturday, as the drive entered its sixth day amid renewed efforts to curb the virus.
The campaign, running from Dec. 15 to 21, targets children under the age of five and is being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) which oversees eradication efforts.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries where wild poliovirus transmission has never been interrupted, keeping global eradication efforts at risk. The virus, which can cause irreversible paralysis, has no cure and can only be prevented through repeated oral vaccination.
“The last nationwide polio campaign of 2025 continues in full swing on the sixth day,” the NEOC said in a statement. “Over 43.8 million children have been vaccinated in five days so far.”
Provincial data released by the National EOC showed that around 22.7 million children had been vaccinated in Punjab province, more than 10.2 million in Sindh, approximately 6.9 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and about 2.5 million in Balochistan. In Islamabad, over 450,000 children received polio drops, while more than 274,000 were vaccinated in Gilgit-Baltistan and over 714,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
“The polio campaign is being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” the NEOC said. “More than 400,000 polio workers are going door to door across the country to administer vaccines.”
Pakistan has logged 30 polio cases so far in 2025, underscoring the fragility of progress against the virus. The country recorded 74 cases in 2024, a sharp rise from six cases in 2023, reflecting setbacks caused by vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and access challenges in high-risk areas.
Health officials say insecurity remains a major obstacle. Polio workers and their security escorts have repeatedly been targeted in militant attacks, particularly in parts of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan, complicating efforts to reach every child. Natural disasters, including flooding, have further disrupted vaccination campaigns in recent years.
“Parents and communities are urged to fully cooperate with polio workers,” the NEOC said, stressing that every child under the age of five must be given polio drops.
Pakistan has dramatically reduced polio prevalence since the 1990s, when annual cases exceeded 20,000. Health authorities, however, warn that without sustained access to children in underserved and conflict-affected areas, eradication will remain out of reach.
