Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh High Court on Friday directed provincial authorities to disclose what criterion is used for issuing licences to liquor shops.

The court also directed the provincial election commission to submit details of Muslims and minorities in the city’s posh neighborhoods where eleven liquor shops are being run.

Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who headed a division bench, gave these directions while hearing a petition seeking cancellation of the licence of a liquor shop being operated in North Karachi. The hearing was put off tillOctober 18.

At the outset, the excise and taxation department’s Director General informed the judges that there are 120 liquor shops across the province. Of the 120 shops, 59 are in Karachi. Eleven shops are being operated in Karachi’s DHA and Clifton areas.

Petitioner Muhammad Zafar Mavia had submitted that M/s Lucky Traders was granted a licence by the excise and taxation department to run a liquor shop in Korangi area. However, it was shifted to North Karachi’s Sector H, which is a Muslim-majority area.

‘The open selling of liquor would create chaos as the majority of the people living in the locality are Muslims,’ he said.