Karachi, 2007: more than 100 dead in different incidents of toxic alcohol consumption in the month of Ramzan. Rawalpindi, September 2008: three men die of drinking toxic alcohol, another loses his eyesight. Multan, December 2009: 14 dead, four end up in hospital after drinking toxic alcohol. Police arrest a man named Mehboob and seize eight drums of hooch from his house. Sialkot, April 2010: two die, two in critical condition after drinking toxic alcohol. Larkana, September 2011: three dead, eight unconscious, of which three in critical condition after drinking homemade alcohol. Karachi, October 2011: 14 dead after drinking toxic liquor. Police raid an illegal distillery, arrest several people and seize bottles of alcohol. Khanewal, November 2011: 13 dead after drinking poisonous alcohol. Badin, August 2012: three more die of consuming homemade alcohol, bringing the death toll to five. Another man had died in a similar incident a few days back. There are around 25 illegal distilleries in the area. Lahore, August 2012: a young man dies after consuming toxic alcohol. Faisalabad, July 2013: 18 people dead after consuming toxic alcohol.
Searching for more details about the latest incident in Faisalabad, I could hardly find more than a brief paragraph in both the English and Urdu newspapers. The general tone of reporting was that the victims were responsible for their own deaths. Most victims were reluctant to seek medical help, while relatives avoided media coverage due to the legal ban and stigma attached to alcohol consumption. Some comments to the news media suggested the victims should at least have respected the holy month of Ramzan and postponed their partying, as if death was not enough of a punishment and that they had somehow contaminated the fasting of devout Muslims by dying of toxic alcohol.
Such incidents were distant news until I had a personal shock some years ago. A young man named Shams who used to diligently paint our house every year, suddenly died. He was the most reliable, hardworking and skilled person we employed for this purpose. His family did not even share the news of his death with many people. My brother later discovered he had consumed cheap liquor, got sick and died in a matter of hours, while his friend who drank with him died on his way to Multan. Even now thinking of Shams brings a picture of a freshly painted, neat and clean house to my mind. What a loss of hundreds of precious lives, all because the state of Pakistan would insist on a self-righteousness ban on alcohol.
In Pakistan, the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks is prohibited for Muslims since Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto imposed a ban in 1977 to appease the opposition. Himself an avid drinker, he is said to have later regretted this measure because it emboldened the opposition rather than blunted the edge of their criticism. Pakistan is suffering the consequences of that ill-advised move to this day. While the legislature, the Council of Islamic Ideology and the judicial authorities sit comfortable in their self-righteous support for the ban on alcohol, hundreds have died of consuming toxic liquor brewed at home or in unregulated distilleries, millions have switched to hard drugs like heroin, and billions have been lost in tax revenues, while bootlegging and smuggling thrives in connivance with the law enforcement agencies.
Non-Muslims are allowed to obtain permits to buy a monthly quota of alcohol produced at the only distillery in Pakistan, Murree Brewery. Most use this permit to buy alcohol for their Muslim customers. The business of illegally issued and fake permits is booming. Embassy employees of some African, East and Central Asian countries have turned the ban into a lucrative business of selling alcohol brought with diplomatic clearance to Islamabad for cash. Trucks cross the mountainous terrain to bring Chinese vodka into Pakistan. The illegal nature of this business adds to the risks involved and jacks up the price. Still, there is no dearth of beer, wine, vodka and whiskey in urban parties. It has almost become a joke that in Pakistan, you can order alcohol faster than a pizza.
Dr Sadaqat Ali, who runs a chain of rehabilitation centres and treats around 500 alcoholics every year, estimates the number of alcohol consumers in Pakistan to be 10 million, of whom one million are addicts. His target market is the affluent middle class who have access to a range of local and smuggled hard liquors. His clients have included famous sportsmen, judges, politicians, army generals and bureaucrats. Millions others, who cannot afford branded drinks, turn to the cheaper option of illegally brewed hooch, widely produced and easily available everywhere.
This is what has done most damage. Brewed at home, or distilled by moonshiners, homemade liquor is without quality control. The complex organic process of brewing alcohol sometimes goes awry and instead yields methanol, which is the most common toxin in homemade brews. It could blind the consumer, affect vital organs and could prove fatal, as several incidents have proved. Since most of those who die of this brew are poor people, no one considered it an issue, nor raised voice at an appropriate forum to address it. Therefore hundreds die year after year.
In 2007, some parliamentarians called for lifting the ban on alcohol because it had induced an increase in drug addiction. Then Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi supported the move saying, “I am not going to mention how many members of this honourable house drink.” In 2009, the Federal Shariat Court ruled that the punishment of 80 whips prescribed in Article eight of the Prohibition Order 1979, enforced by General Ziaul Haq, was un-Islamic. Still, little debate has ensued to reverse prohibition.
Pakistan is a dry state in the statute books only. It is overflowing with all kinds of drinks and drugs. Experience shows that wherever prohibition has been enforced, moonshining and bootlegging thrived. Many countries reversed prohibition laws to eliminate the resulting black markets and bringing the industry into the tax net. Pakistan cannot, and should not, try to enforce prohibition. Consuming or not consuming alcohol does not make one a better Muslim. Like other aspects of religion, it should strictly be a matter of personal choice. Consuming alcohol may be sinful, but the alcohol ban that is costing precious lives is criminal.
The writer is a freelance journalist based in Washington, DC. She tweets at @ishrats and can be reached at [email protected]