Sindh Assembly: Saleem Khokar suggests selling liquor openly in the market

‘Reinforcing ban on the basis that only non-Muslims consume liquor creates discrimination’.

KARACHI:

A minority MPA of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) advised the government to lift the ban on open sale of liquor and allow it to be sold like Coke or Pepsi.

During the Sindh Assembly session on Wednesday, MPA Saleem Khursheed Khokhar said that reinforcing the ban on the basis that only non-Muslims should consume liquor created more discrimination. He asked the house not to allow it just for the minorities since it was consumed by everyone.

Khokhar, who is also the chairman of Sindh Assembly’s standing committee on minority affairs, went on to say that if alcohol was not allowed in any religion and non-Muslims were not the only consumers then why liquor shops were opened in the name of non-Muslims only?

“I suggest removing the ban and selling liquor in the open market.”

When Khokhar was asked by excise and taxation minister, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, whether he [Khokhar] owned a liquor shop, he denied it saying, “If anyone can prove it [that he owned a liquor shop], I am ready to face the consequences.”

Earlier Chawla had said that the competent authority to grant the permission for opening a liquor shop was the chief minister. He was replying to a question asked by an MPA of Pakistan Muslim League- F (PML-F), Nusrat Seher Abbasi. Chawla said, “Liquor permit is granted to non-Muslim adult residents of Pakistan under the 1979 Act.”

He informed the house that the government charged Rs5 million for granting a licence to open a liquor shop.

Chawla also said that the government was contemplating launching a campaign to make the towns and cities free of drugs. He said that the campaign will begin from Larkana to make it a “drug free city.” “We will start the campaign in a couple of months,” said the excise minister. “All the stakeholders and related departments will work on it.”

While responding to queries about the steps being taken against the drug mafia, Chawla said that from July 2011 to January 2012 around 197 cases had been registered and 215 people arrested by the excise police. He expressed concerns over the shortage of staff, lack of resources and lack of technology to crack down on the mafia.

Deputation workers

During the question-and-answer session, Chawla informed the assembly members that he had no authority to dispense with people working on deputation, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had ordered that all of them be sent back to their parent departments.

“We transfer the outsiders but they still manage to come in my department on deputation. This is not my fault.” he said. “We have to obey the orders of Services, General and Coordination Department, which is supposed to regulate and transfer the employees,” he said.

Forced conversions

PPP MPA Pitanber Sewani raised the issue and requested that the speaker take up his resolution. “I tabled the resolution a few days ago for putting a ban on forced marriages but it has not gotten any response yet.”

Sewani said that the assembly speaker Nisar Khuhro had said that a decision on the ruling will be made within three days, but neither the law department nor anyone else had bothered to look into the matter, which was a big concern for the Hindu community these days.

Law minister Ayaz Soomro assured Sewani that the government will soon give its input on the resolution.

While talking to the media after the session, Sewani said that President Asif Ali Zardari had issued directives to the government to resolve the issues of Hindu community, no one had done anything.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2012.