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Alcohol in Pakistan: The prohibition and

after (/news/1060507/alcohol-in-pakistan-
the-prohibition-and-after)
NADEEM F. PARACHA (/AUTHORS/774/NADEEM-F-PARACHA)

Published at
2013-12-05 10:03:39

One of my favourite pastimes is sharing a drink with close friends and talking late into the night
about a million things, in spite of the fact that Im not a big drinker or rather havent been oneFee
for over a decade now.

Unlike most fans of sinful beverages in Pakistan, I only seldom keep alcoholic drinks at
home. But those who do (in Karachi), this is perhaps one of the only reasons they like living
in this city.

After all, Karachi (and the rest of the Sindh province) is the only place in Pakistan where one
can buy alcoholic beverages rather easily.

Licenced wine shops are a plenty and bootleggers (dealing in smuggled whisky, vodka and
beer brands) operate freely.

When I turned 10 in 1977, religious political parties had spun alcohol into a national issue.

I remember thinking what all the fuss was about because as a child Id seen nightclubs, bars
and roadside cafes in Karachi (that served alcohol) operating like any entertainment business
would.

But, of course, such thinking was emanating from a 10-year-old boy who could not
understand the political and theological aspects behind the religious parties crusade against
alcohol.
Once while coming back from a marriage ceremony that I had attended with my grandparents
(during the height of the religious parties movement against the Bhutto regime in March
1977), our car got caught up in a riot at Karachis Lucky Star area.

All I remember of the episode was dozens of youth with sticks smashing traffic signals and
then breaking into two liquor stores there. They had already destroyed the huge neon sign of
Pakistans Murree Beer that stood on top of an apartment building in the same area.

This is what I saw that day: A few young men would raise slogans while breaking whiskey,
gin, vodka and beer bottles in the two shops. But most young men, I remember, would go into
the shops and come out carrying as many beer and whiskey bottles they could lay their
hands on and run away with them into narrow lanes.

But the starkest memory I have of the episode is that of young men breaking into the two
liquor stores, coming out with a bottle or two of Pakistani whisky, and swigging the stuff down
Fee
their throats right there on the pavement outside the shops, before the stores eventually went
up in flames.

Obviously, as a 10-year-old I just couldnt understand why men who were supposedly against
the sale and consumption of alcohol in Pakistan (on religious grounds), would steal the
merchandise of liquor stores for their own consumption and even drink it right there before
putting the shops on fire.

Despite the violence and the eventual prohibition on the (open) sale of alcohol and bars in
Pakistan in April 1977, Pakistanis never did stop drinking.

In fact according to many surveys, cases of alcoholism grew two-fold in the 1980s and so did
cases of death and disease caused by tainted whiskey (moonshine).

Illegal and shady breweries producing cheap whiskey for the consumption of those from the
working and peasant classes were not a new phenomenon in Pakistan.

But when alcohol was legal in Pakistan, bars, cafes and liquor stores kept and sold alcoholic
beverages from established breweries. These produced whiskey, vodka, gin and beer brands
that came with various price tags.

For example, a bar or a liquor store would store both expensive brands, as well as
inexpensive ones, but both would come from established breweries.
After the ban however, when liquor stores were only allowed to sell their products to non-
Muslims, prices of alcoholic beverages skyrocketed.

Though the beverages were still in the reach of upper and middle-class Pakistanis who drank,
drinkers from the working and peasant classes could not keep up with the rising prices.

They began to squarely depend on liquor being produced by the shady moonshine makers
and many poor and working-class Pakistanis continue to lose their lives due to the tainted
and underprepared whiskey (Katchi Sharab) produced by illegal brewers.

However, over the decades, and with Pakistan continuing to face the ever-growing issues of
religious and sectarian violence, burgeoning crime rates and political and economic
upheavals, alcohol as a burning moral issue has greatly receded into the background.

Though it is still banned, it is easily available in wine shops, some restaurants and from
bootleggers, especially in the Sindh province and its capital, Karachi.
Fee
Whats more, Pakistans oldest and largest brewery, Murree Brewery, continues to do roaring
business and is one of the biggest tax-paying set-ups in Pakistan.

Nobody throws up their arms anymore and shouts out loud moralistic platitudes if they find
out that someone drinks. Its an issue that is just not talked about much anymore.

For example, some religious parties have attempted to trigger a number of campaigns
against liquor stores in Karachi, but have failed to generate any worthwhile momentum and
support from the people. A far cry from what these parties achieved in this regard in 1977.

The only time the debate on alcohol is revived (in the media) is when people die from
consuming cheap tainted whiskey.

And even then, newspaper reports and analysts do not shy away anymore from alluding that
moonshiners thrive mainly due to the alcohol ban in the country that has greatly jacked-up
the prices of good quality alcoholic beverages available in the legal wine shops.

The message is that the 1977 prohibition failed to stop many Pakistanis from consuming
alcohol. In fact, the ban continues to drive a number of poor men into consuming poisonous
whiskey, or they end up becoming drug addicts.
When the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in April 1977 in Pakistan, it was more of
a political decision than a moral one.

Under pressure from an animated protest movement by an alliance of various right-wing

political parties (Pakistan National Alliance [PNA]), Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto began to
pragmatically address and agree to some of the demands made by the PNA leaders.

Bhuttos government had come to power through the popular vote and had made a number of
socialist promises.

However, by 1977 the government was facing harsh criticism from its right-wing opponents
(especially in the major urban centers of the country).

By the time Bhutto went in for a reelection in 1977, his government was embroiled in grave
economic problems (triggered by the international oil crises, subsequent inflation, and the
failure of the Bhutto regimes nationalisation policies that had seen a number of industries, Fee
banks and educational institutions suffer from incompetent management and rising
corruption.

During his tenure he had also tried to mix populist socialist and secular notions of social
democracy with certain aspects of Political Islam (that the partys ideologues called Islamic
Socialism).

Though the idea was to blunt the opposition coming from the right-wing religious groups, the
careless fusion actually regenerated these groups that had otherwise been swept aside
during the 1970 general elections.

For instance, as a catch-all slogan, the PNA, led by fundamentalist parties demanded that
Pakistan be governed by a Nizam-e-Mustafa (Shariah).

Even though this was explained with the help of modern writings of Islamic scholars such as
Jamat-i-Islami chief, Abul Ala Maududi, Bhuttos Islamic Socialism had unwittingly given
credence to certain myths that began being advocated as historical facts.

The historical explanation of PNAs Nizam-e-Mustafa was rooted in one such myth: That
Pakistan had come into being through divine credence so that it could become the bastion of
Islam in the world.
Secondly, when in 1973, Bhutto purged his own party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), by
expelling a number of its left-wing ideologues, he (like Anwar Sadat in Egypt), overestimated
the threat posed to his government by the pro-Soviet far-left groups.

And again like Sadat, Bhutto thought that he could deflect opposition from the Islamists by
giving them a free hand on university campuses that were until then hotbeds of left-wing
thought and action.

By 1973 college and university campuses in Karachi and Lahore had witnessed a surge in
the popularity and influence of the JIs student wing the Islami Jamiat Taleba (IJT).

However, it was also true that in the event of the ineffectual and divided opposition against
Bhutto in the parliament and the streets, his opponents, especially in the shape of the
mohajirs (Urdu speakers) in Karachi and the right-wing anti-Bhutto bourgeoisie in the Punjab,
largely expressed their opposition to Bhuttos populist regime through the IJT in educational
Fee
institutions.

During the campaigning of the 1977 election, the PNA accused Bhutto of being a drunk and a
womaniser, and resolved that if the people voted PNA into power it would rid the society of
the evils of alcohol.

During a rally in Lahore the same year, Bhutto responded by telling the crowds: Haan mein
sharab peeta hoon, laikan awam ka khoon nahi peeta! (Yes, I drink, but I do not drink the
peoples blood).

He was lashing out at the PNA leaders who were being facilitated and funded by those
industrialists whose businesses he had nationalised.

This was not the first time that the right-wing religious parties had blamed alcohol for the
economic, political and social sufferings of the people.

The youth wing of the fundamentalist Majlis-e-Ahrar had attacked coffee houses serving
alcoholic drinks in Lahore during the 1954 anti-Ahmadi riots.

Then, in the late 1960s, the student wing of the JI, (the IJT) began a movement against liquor
stores and bars in Karachi when (in 1967) the progressive Islamic scholar, Dr. Fazalur
Rahman Malik, claimed on TV that according to the hanafi mathab (jurisprudence) that the
majority of Pakistans Sunni Muslims followed, only some alcoholic beverages were haraam
(unlawful) in Islam. He then went on to suggest that there was nothing wrong in consuming
beer.

In response to Rahmans statement, JI asked him to be exiled and IJT activists attacked a
number of liquor stores, hoardings and billboards advertising the Pakistani made Murree
Beer in Karachi.

Nevertheless, the IJT campaign did not resonate with the public that was already embroiled
in the largely left-wing student and labor movement against the Ayub Khan dictatorship, even
though Rahman did leave the country and settled in the US as a Professor of Islamic Studies
at the Chicago University.

After the loss of East Pakistan (that broke away and became Bangladesh) in 1971 and the
subsequent defeat of the Pakistan army at the hands of their Indian counterparts, JI accused
Fee
the Pakistani Generals liking for wine and women as one of the main causes of Pakistans
defeat in the war.

In 1974, Prime Minister Bhutto banned alcohol in the army mess halls, although no such
action was taken against bars, nightclubs, coffee houses and liquor stores in the cities.

Throughout the Bhutto regime, IJT tried to initiate various campaigns against liquor stores
and nightclubs but it failed to find much public support until the 1977 PNA movement.

After Bhuttos PPP swept the National Assembly polls in the 1977 election, PNA claimed that
the results were manipulated and that there were widespread cases of fraud undertaken by
government agents during the polling.

After boycotting the Provincial Assembly elections, the PNA began a tense protest
movement.

The movement demanded Bhuttos resignation. The movement got its strongest support in
Karachi where thousands of right-wing students, shopkeepers, businessmen and professionals
agitated in the streets and clashed head-on with the police. The working classes largely stayed
away.

A number of liquor stores and nightclubs were also attacked and looted. So when Bhutto got
into a dialogue with the PNA, he agreed to close down all bars, liquor stores and nightclubs.
Just when it seemed that a breakthrough was on the horizon between the PPP regime and
the PNA, General Ziaul Haq pulled off a military coup in July 1977.

Although he also arrested PNA members along with PPP ministers and Bhutto himself, Zia
adopted the PNAs Islamic overtones and then invited the JI to help him turn Pakistan into
becoming a true Islamic state.

The bans imposed on alcohol by Bhutto remained, but Zia added a punishment of 80 lashes
to anyone defying the ban.

The prohibition has held. However, wine shops licensed by the government to cater to
Pakistans non-Muslim communities are allowed to function but only if they sell local beer,
whisky, gin, vodka and rum brands and only sell them to foreigners and the countrys
Christian, Hindu, Zoroastrian and other non-Muslim consumers who have a permit issued to
them by the government. Fee

Nevertheless, almost 90 per cent of the consumers of the brewerys products are Muslim.

Some religious parties have continued to try initiating campaigns against even the licensed
wine shops but these campaigns have failed to generate any public momentum or backing
whatsoever.

Some observers suggest that such campaigns have been a failure due to the bigger problem
of heroin addiction in the cities.

It is also interesting to note that the use of deadly drugs such as heroin increased (almost
tenfold) in Pakistan after the ban on liquor went into effect.

For example until 1979 there were only two reported cases of heroin addiction in Pakistan
(reported at the Jinnah Hospital in Karachi); but by 1985, Pakistan had the worlds second
largest population of heroin addicts.

Also starling is the fact that there has been little or almost no action by the countrys
mainstream religious parties on the issue of heroin usage and sale.
I have been fortunate enough to travel across Europe and much of Asia in the last 10 years
or so. One learns so much by engaging with and experiencing a variety of cultures and
cuisine but, at least with me, there always comes a time (as a visitor in a foreign country),
when I start craving good old Pakistani/Indian food.

In 2005, while traveling across Holland, Germany and France, the pangs and cravings for
desi food struck me in the middle of a busy shopping district in Paris.

Luckily, I was able to spot a restaurant whose doorman was dressed in a traditional Pushtun
dress. I dont exactly remember the name of the place, but on inquiry, I was told it was owned
by two middle-aged gentlemen one an Indian (from Bangalore), and the other a Pakistani
(from Lahore).

Whats more, the waiters too were a colorful South Asian mix: Pakistanis, Indians and
Bangladeshis. It was a fantastic environment, and I was able to speak Urdu for the first time
Fee
during my brief stay in a city where people even struggled with English. It was a joy looking at
a menu that I could actually understand.

After ordering some biryani, nihari and a couple of rotis, I turned to the drinks section in the
menu. I was delighted to note that the restaurant was also offering Indian beer, which I
ordered right away.

Lighting myself a cigarette, I waited in enthusiastic anticipation. It took just five minutes for
the waiter to bring the beer and lo and behold! I looked at the bottle and it was Murree Beer!

It was a pleasant little surreal moment discovering Pakistani beer in Paris. I, at once, called
back the waiter and asked him what was the name of a Pakistani beer brand doing under
Indian Beers on the menu?

The middle-aged man was from Pakistan (Punjab), and he gave me a puzzled look: Sorry,
what did you say? he politely asked.

From Urdu, I switched to Punjabi: Friend, this is a Pakistani beer brand

But before I could continue he interrupted: Sir, goras (Caucasians) usually ask for Indian
beer you want an Indian brand?

Absolutely not! I said. I love Indian beer, but Murree has its moments too. Ask your bosses
to put it under the heading of Pakistani Beer, will you?

Murree Beer is made by Murree Brewery Co., Pakistans oldest brewery. It was established in
1860 near the famous resort town of Murree in the Punjab province of what is now Pakistan.

In the 1920s the brewery was moved to Rawalpindi where it still stands. In the 1960s,
Murree, which until then was famous for its beers, introduced malt whisky, and by the early
1970s, it was also producing vodka and gin.

Before prohibition on the sale of alcohol was imposed in Pakistan in April 1977, various
foreign whisky and beer brands were available in bars, liquor shops and clubs in the main
urban areas of the country; but Murree remained to be the leading (and most affordable)
brand.

In fact Murrees popularity (especially among young urban middle-class Pakistanis) was such
that it started to advertise its beer in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fee
Hoardings and billboards carrying images of Murree Beer went up, mostly in Karachi, with the
biggest being a neon sign put on top of a six-storied building in Karachis Lucky Star area in
the shopping vicinity of Saddar.

In the 1970s, Murree was competing with various imported beer and whisky brands, but it
continued to do well because it was mostly catering to a growing middle-class market to
which imported alcoholic brands were an expensive luxury.

There were a few other local brands as well, but none of them survived the prohibition on
alcohol in April 1977.

Apart from the fact that more than 90 per cent of the customers of the licensed wine shops
were/are Muslims, the 1980s and 1990s also saw a dramatic rise in cases of heroin and
tranquilizer addiction.

Whats more, though quality Murree brands are available in these shops, their prices have
risen, leaving many lower-middle and underclass Pakistanis to consume inferior and
dangerous underprepared alcoholic beverages sold by shady bootlegging mafias operating in
the impoverished areas of urban Pakistan.

Also, ever since the ban on alcohol, liquor smugglers and dealers have been turning a profit
with contraband alcoholic drinks.

Trucks bring vodka in from China across the mountains along the countrys northern border,
while ships unload cargos of beer and whiskey from Europe at the port of Karachi.

Though the disruptive growth of heroin and bootlegging mafias has been a natural
consequence of the long ban, the irony is, ever since the 1980s, the number of chronic
alcoholics in Pakistan has witnessed a rapid increase.

Murree Brewery is one of the biggest tax-paying companies in Pakistan. Ever since 1977, it
has survived the various waves of imposed piety and convoluted expressions of state-
sanctioned faith, which, on most occasions, has only managed to spell political, cultural and
even spiritual dichotomies in Pakistan.

Most Pakistanis usually remain silent on the issue of the prohibition on alcohol and the mostly
negative effects that this ban has had on a society in which the consumption of alcohol Fee
(among large sections across all classes in both urban and rural areas) remains to be a
common occurrence and habit.

Of course, the conservative elements simply refuse to look for a more moderate solution,
whereas others have suggested that the lifting of the ban will not only gradually rid the
country of bootlegging and heroin mafias, the rate of alcoholism and the deaths caused by
inferior quality liquor in the large shanty towns of the country will come down as well.

The conservatives just cannot link alcohol anymore with a number of political, economic and
spiritual issues that have continued to rain in on the people of Pakistan for past many
decades.

The anti-alcohol campaign managed to succeed in the late 1970s because the sale and
consumption of alcoholic beverages was convolutedly propagated as one of the main reason
behind the countrys many ills.

However, after the ban not only have these ills (such as crime) grown but newer ones such
as sectarian violence, cases of religious bigotry, violence against women, and extremist
terrorism have emerged.
Alcohol in Muslim-majority countries: 1
(http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f65ba196.jpg)

Algeria (Completely legal) 2 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f93c6a84e6.jpg)

Albania (Completely legal)
Azerbaijan (Completely legal)
Bahrain (Conditionally legal) 3 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f6f51d8d.jpg)
Bangladesh (Partially legal) 4 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f657fa5b.jpg)
Bosnia (Completely legal)
Brunei (Completely banned)
Burkina Faso (Completely legal)
Chad (Completely legal)
Comoros (Completely legal)
Djibouti (NA)
Fee
Egypt (Completely legal)
Gambia (Partially legal) 5 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f5c29be2.jpg)
Guinea (NA)
Indonesia (Completely legal)
Iran (Completely banned)
Iraq (Conditionally legal) 6 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f72cdda7.jpg)
Jordan (Completely legal)
Kazakhstan (Completely legal)
Kosovo (Completely legal)
Kuwait (Completely banned)
Kyrgyzstan (Completely legal)
Lebanon (Completely legal)
Libya (Completely banned)
Malaysia (Conditionally legal) 7 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f6075a34.jpg)
Maldives (Conditionally legal) 8 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f5870001.jpg)
Mali (Completely legal)
Mauritania (Completely banned)
Mayotte (Completely legal)
Morocco (Completely legal)
 Niger (Completely legal)
Oman (Partially legal) 9 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f7ad1ddd.jpg)
Pakistan (Partially legal) 10 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f66ebeb0.jpg)
Palestinian territory (Completely legal)
Qatar (Partially legal)
Saudi Arabia (Completely banned)
Senegal (Completely legal)
Sierra Leone (Completely legal)
Somalia (Completely banned)
Sudan (Partially legal) 12 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f672d539.jpg)
Syria (Completely legal)
Tajikistan (Partially legal) [13]
Tunisia (Completely legal)
Turkey (Completely legal) Fee
Turkmenistan (Completely legal)
UAE (Partially legal) [14]
Uzbekistan (Completely legal)
Western Sahara (Completely legal)
Yemen (Completely banned)

1 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f65ba196.jpg) Alcohol use in predominantly

Muslim regions of the world increased by 25 per cent between 2005 and 2010.
2 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f93c6a84e6.jpg) Alcohol sales are prohibited during
the month of Ramazan.
3 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f6f51d8d.jpg) Consumption only allowed at bars
and designated restaurants.
4 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f657fa5b.jpg) Though alcohol is banned in
Bangladesh but in 2010, the government allowed the sale of beer that has 5 (or less) per cent
alcohol content.
5 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f5c29be2.jpg) Sale only allowed to non-Muslims.
6 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f72cdda7.jpg) Only legal in large cities.
7 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f6075a34.jpg) Banned in the states of Kelantan
and Terengganu. Legal only in licensed restaurants and bars. 8
(http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f5870001.jpg) Legal only at tourist resorts.
9 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f7ad1ddd.jpg) Legal at licensed hotel bars in the
city of Muscat.
10 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f66ebeb0.jpg) Available to non-Muslims at
licensed liquor stores and hotel bars. Sales (through stores) not allowed in the month of
Ramazan and on Fridays.
11 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f6059b3c.jpg) Available to non-Muslims at
licensed hotels.
12 (http://i.dawn.com/medium/2013/12/529f8f672d539.jpg) Legal only in the Christian-
majority areas in South Sudan.
[13] Available in hotels, stores and bars but only to non-Muslims.
[14] Legal in hotels, restaurants and bars in Dubai.
-Source: Brookston Beer Bulletin
Fee
References & Sources:

W Haider, MA Chaudhry, Prevalence of Alcoholism in Pakistan (Biomedica, 2008).

Santosh C. Saha, Thomas K. Carr, Religious Fundamentalism in Developing Countries
(Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001) p.21
S. Akbar Zaidi, Issues in Pakistans Economy (Oxford University Press, 2005).
Nafisa Hoodbhoy, Abroad the Democracy Train (Anthem Press, 2011) p.xxix
Christopher Candland, Labour, Democratization & Development in India & Pakistan
(Routledge, 2007) p.85 L Michalak, K Trocki, Alcohol and Islam, (Hein, 2006) p.523
Ale under the veil: Jonathan Foreman (The Telegraph, 24 March, 2012).
Alcoholism booms in Pakistan: Declan Walsh (The Guardian, 27 December, 2010).

(/authors/774/nadeem-
f-paracha)
Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the
views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.