SHC tells govt to submit list of wine wholesalers’ shops

The Sindh High Court has directed a provincial law officer to submit a list of shops of wine wholesalers and explain the methodology under which they operate in the province.

The directive came on Wednesday at a hearing of petitions against the issuance of licences to wine retailers in Muslim-populated areas.

Additional Advocate General Mustafa Mahesar submitted a statement mentioning that show-cause notices had been issued to the wine retailers of the province in compliance with orders of the court.

The court had at a previous hearing observed that there was no provision under Section 17 of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order 1979 for creating a legal possibility for granting general licences to liquor shops to operate throughout the year. It had further observed that non-Muslims could only be provided with liquor for consumption at their religious ceremonies for which requests in advance had to be made by them with supporting evidence from their religious bodies.

The high court had told the director general of the excise and taxation department to initiate the process of recalling licences granted to wine shops in violation of the law.

Mahesar said the excise department had given10 days to retailers to reply to the show-cause notices.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah observed that notices as well as a list of retail wine shops had been provided by the AAG; however, the list was totally silent about the shops of wine wholesalers.

The court directed the provincial law officer to submit a list of wholesalers of wine as well as the methodology by which shops of wholesalers operated in the province.

The petitioners, including Shaharyar David, had sought the cancellation of wine shop licences in Defence, Clifton and other Muslim-populated areas, and submitted that wine shops licences were issued in the past to retailers for selling it in localities of Christian and Hindu communities.

They said liquor shops were operating in Muslim-populated areas and there was no justification for running such shops in those areas, and requested the court to cancel the licences.

Missing MQM men

Family members of two Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists, who were alleged to have been trained by Indian spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), have moved the Sindh High Court against their enforced disappearance.

Najma Tahir and Nasreen Kanwal submitted that an anti-terrorism
court had acquitted their spouses, Tahir and Mohammad Junaid, of charges of possession of illegal weapons and soon after their release from the central prison on October 24 they were allegedly picked up again by personnel of law enforcement agencies.

The women sought protection and safe recovery of their spouses and requested the court to direct the police and other law enforcement agencies to recover them and produce them before the court.

Former SSP Malir Rao Anwar had shown the arrest of Tahir along with Junaid Mama’s on April 30 last year, claiming that suspects had affiliation with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and had been sent to India for training in the past. 

The police officer had claimed that the suspects had confessed to the charges and they were ashamed of their activities.