Petition against liquor sale dismissed

LAHORE: Announcing a reserved verdict, Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on sale of liquor for being illegal, unconstitutional and against the inunctions of Islam. The judge dismissed the petition for being not maintainable before the court under Article 199 of the Constitution.

Justice Mirza had reserved his verdict on the maintainability of the petitioner the other dayAdvocate Nadeem Sarwar argued that the consumption of alcohol was not prohibited in Islam but also in Christianity, Hinduism and other religions. The lawyer asked the court to order the government to cancel the licences of the respondent hotels for selling liquor during the whole year to any person.