SC sends ban on liquor sale case to SHC

Makes it clear they have not allowed sale of liquor

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed the Sindh High Court (SHC) to decide the matter pertaining to closure of wine and liquor shops after hearing the counsels representing the shop owners.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heard the appeals, filed by the wine and liquor shop owners against the Sindh Hight Court (SHC)

The court remanded the matter to the Sindh High Court with direction to decide the matter after hearing the counsels of the shop owners. The court, however, made it clear that they had not allowed the sale of liquor.Appearing on notice, Shahid Hamid, representing wine shopowners, submitted that the Sindh High Court had passed the order without hearing their point of view.

He contended that the case was against four wine shop owners, but the high court, taking suo moto notice, ordered closure of 120 shops and 23 wholesale dealers throughout Sindh.Earlier, Dr Ramesh Kumar, a parliamentarian of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, contended before the bench that drinking and selling liquor was prohibited in religious books of the Hindus, adding the business of liquor in the name of religions was wrong. He said if liquor had to be sold, non-Muslims’ name should be removed.

On Oct 18, the high court ordered the authorities concerned to initiate the process of recalling licences granted to liquor shops in violation of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979.

The order came with an observation that no provision under Article 17 of the order created legal authority for granting general licence to liquor shops to operate throughout the year as non-Muslims could only be provided liquor at their religious ceremonies for which request in advance had to be made.

Asma Jehangir on November 14 filed a joint petition on behalf of Kohistan Wine Shop Karachi, Azad Wine Shop Karachi, Mehran Wine Shop, Hyderabad, Arjun Wine Agency, Mirpurkhas, Mazda Trading, Karachi, Master Wine Shop, Sukkur, Sindh Wine Shop, Nawabshah, and Lucky and Company, Karachi. They requested the apex court to set aside the Oct 27 order of the Sindh High Court, shutting down all the liquor shops in the province.

The petitioners pleaded to be allowed to continue their business till their petition was pending in the apex court. They said they were law-abiding citizens and paid duties amounting to Rs3 billion in 2015.

The petition said that the high court had arbitrarily taken the decision and without examining the sale records of wine shops it had concluded that liquor was being sold in violation of the Article 17 of the Prohibition Order, 1979. The petitioners said there was not a single complaint against them.It said alcohol factories and stores were operative all over the country, including Islamabad Capital Territory, Balochistan and the Punjab.