On October 18, the Sindh High Court ordered the authorities concerned to initiate the process of recalling licences granted to liquor shops. On Monday, the owners of wine shops in Sindh filed a joint petition in the Supreme Court, requesting it to set aside the order of Sindh High Court shutting down all the shops in the province. The petition was moved by rights activist Asma Jahangir on behalf of eight wine shops, four of which are in Karachi, namely Kohistan Wine Shop, Azad Wine Shop, Mazda Trading and Lucky and Company.
The closure of wine shops will hurt tens of thousands of workers, while the people who like to drink will not be much affected, except perhaps in the shady hassle of procuring their tipple. Actually, you cannot stop a person from drinking. If they do not get it through legitimate channels, the licenced wine shops, they will make their booze in the bathtub or drink spirits, locally called 'thurra', which will ultimately destroy them. Closure of wine shops is likely to therefore lead to alcohol abuse to the point it becomes harmful.
Wine drinking is part of almost all cultures. Look at our poetry; it is full of praise of wine and the wine-bearer. My favourite is a line from Ahmed Faraz's ghazal: 'Nashe se kum to nahi yaad-i-yaar ka alam'. And who is there who did not fall in love with Mulka Pukhraj's 'Abhi tu main jawan hon' the moment it was recorded?
The Arabs claim to be promoters of Muslim virtue, but Arabs are as fond of drinking as other people. The wise ruler of Dubai allowed wine; if he had not, he could not have attracted foreigners to make Dubai such a great city. Every righteous person, whether he be a cleric or a judge or social worker condemns alcohol purely because it is so easy to criticise the drinkers. You hardly find them condemning rapists, karo-kari killers, drug smugglers, land mafia and other criminals who are really destroying the fabric of our life. The righteous judge drinker to be evil.
The one thing good about the Prohibition Order 1979 is that it closed Karachi bars in public places like Tariq Road and other shopping centers in Saddar, as well as bars in hotels. Today wine drinking is not a visible activity. Drinkers by and large are discreet. To the righteous however, the very idea that people still continue to drink, Muslims at that, is shocking. The reason is they do not realise drinking and alcoholism are not one and the same thing. Unlike in western countries where alcoholism is not much of an issue here.
Journalists are notorious for two bad habits, cigarette smoking and drinking. Therefore, I am simply incapable of being judgmental. A lot of them, men and women colleagues, are some of the nicest people I know. Of course, they are quite brazen. An old tippler once said to me: All my righteous friends are dead; all my drinking cronies are still living. What he meant is that the drink relived tension, leading to a longer life.
There is good reason why the wine shops should remain. What will 24,000 jobless workers do if the Supreme Court does not overturn the Sindh High Court order? There will be criminal abuse of alcohol. People will sell spurious drinks; smuggling of prime wine from abroad will increase; criminals will get rich, just like it happened in the USA. Read the history of the American Prohibition, as well as the several novels written about it. The most striking thing is that it leads to organised drug business and strengths the hand of the Mafia. The future of Sindh, especially Karachi will be just like that.