No more for the road: price hike doesn’t even spare booze consumers

Every part of the castle-esque building was shrouded in darkness, except one little corner whence light peeked through a slightly open shutter. Long-time regular customers huddled this shop like every evening, and apart from their murmurs, the entire building was silent.
Inside the small shop, behind the iron bars and glass, some men packed bottles. A sign at the main entrance read “Only for non-Muslims”. Outside, a man sold popcorn and cold water bottles.
Customers, pressed for time, bought their preferred liquor, following which some concealed their purchase under their clothes so they could be carried without being pestered by anyone, while some poured their spirits into the water bottles.
At the counter, a man argued with the vendor. “I already told you! We don’t have a single bottle of Murree (Brewery)! You can buy only this,” the vendor told the customer as he pointed towards the bottles of colourful spirits. However, the customer insisted on Murree.
These scenes were witnessed outside a liquor shop situated on Pakistan’s Wall Street, the II Chundrigar Road.
Pakistan is a Muslim country where the sale, transport and consumption of liquor is officially banned, with the exception of the four percent non-Muslim citizens to whom the government issues a licence. There are 61 licensed liquor shops in the city of Karachi alone.
Followed by increased taxes imposed on raw alcohol by the Punjab government, the administration of one of the three legal breweries of the country – the Murree Brewery – reduced total liquor production by 80 percent.
As an upshot of reduced production, the prices of Murree Brewery-made spirits increased and local liquor shops started selling liquor produced by Karachi’s sole brewery – the Indus Distillery & Brewery.
The three official liquor manufacturers in Pakistan are the Indus Distillery & Brewery (formerly Beach Brewery) and Quetta Distillery (commonly known as QDL) in Quetta, and the Murree Brewery in Rawalpindi.
QDL and the Murree Brewery were established by the British before the division of the Indian Subcontinent. The Murree Brewery, which is famous for beer, vodka and rum, fulfils 80 percent of the total demand of alcohol in the country. However, after the Punjab government increased taxes on raw alcohol, the brewery has reduced production.
“We are unable to continue production as the Punjab government has increased Rs 75 on a gallon of raw alcohol. It is impossible to make liquor on the same price, so we have reduced production,” said an official of the Murree Brewery.
A litre of gin produced by the Murree Brewery used to cost Rs 750, but it is now being sold between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200. It is a general assumption among liquor consumers that the Murree Brewery was forced to reduce production so the Indus Distillery’s spirits could be promoted.
Since the Murree Brewery has reduced production, most spirit lovers have started consuming kuppi or homemade liquor, due to which over 15 people recently died in Karachi, Mirpurkhas and other cities of Sindh.
“Normally, 80 liquor trucks from the Murree Brewery used to arrive in Sindh every day, but due to a tussle between the brewery and the Punjab government over tax, only eight trucks a day are arriving,” said Sindh Excise & Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla. He said the Sindh government has officially written to the Punjab government to resolve the issue at the earliest.
“I am seriously thinking of closing my business because if the Murree Brewery is forced to shut down, there will be no liquor business at all,” said Maharaj Indar, the owner of a local liquor store.