Homeopaths find side jobs as bootleggers
The vast majority of homeopathy laboratories and stores in the city are illegally selling alcohol.
LAHORE:
The vast majority of homeopathy laboratories and stores in the city are illegally selling alcohol instead of using it in the manufacture of medicine, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Thousands of vendors visit medicine markets in Gowalmandi, Boharwala Chowk at the intersection of Nicholson Road and Allama Iqbal Road, and Lohari Gate every day to buy this bootleg alcohol. “They can come and get it here without fear,” said Tanveer Ahmed, a chemist in the Boharwala market.
Much of it is sold in 450-millilitre bottles packaged as medicines like Alfalfa, China Off, Nux Vomica, Arnica, Avna Stiva, Bryonia, Graphite, Gloninc, Phosphorus and Rus Tox.
The Excise and Taxation Department has issued permits to produce ethanol to 150 homeopathy stores and laboratories, but only 10 or so actually produce medicine, according to an investigation by The Express Tribune. The rest sell alcohol for drinking.
Homeopathy permits are of two types: L-42/D for the manufacture of potencies and L-42/J for the manufacture of mother tincture. Over 400 chemists operate homoeopathic medicine stores in the city’s markets.
“Most permit holders manufacture and sell alcohol purely for drinking. They have no concern with making medicine,” said Homeopathic Doctor Khalid Mehmood Chaudhry, general secretary of the Homoeopathic Doctors, Pharmacists and Chemists Association of Pakistan.
“And many of them are non-professionals who do not even known the basics of homoeopathy. All this takes place with the connivance of excise officials,” he said.
Chaudhry said only around 15 per cent of the alcohol manufactured by permit holders was being used in the production of medicine. He estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the city’s population used homoeopathic medicines.
He said the bootlegging was hurting the profession. “The real homoeopathic manufacturers and practitioners are embarrassed by this business,” he said. Homeopathic Doctor Hamza Bukhari, the registrar of the association, said the alcohol was being transported to other districts of Punjab from the wholesale markets in Gowalmandi and Boharwala Chowk. These markets have been around for 50 years, but alcohol sale became more common about 15 years ago, said chemists who work there.
Neighbourhoods near the Boharwala market have been hurt too. Resident Nazir Ahmed said he was tired of seeing alcoholics wandering around his area looking to buy alcohol.
Nusrat Bibi, another resident, said several young men in the area had become addicted to the freely available liquor. She complained that she could no longer get fresh air without the smell of distilling alcohol hanging heavy in the atmosphere.
A senior police officer confirmed that many homoeopathy doctors were illegally making liquor and that it was the duty of the excise department to stop them. “There are also several criminals who have set up factories without permits and they make what is called ‘desi’ liquor,” he said.
Ali Abbas, an inspector posted at CIA Lahore, said police had seized some 4,500 litres of alcohol from a homoeopathy lab in Manawan police station limits in two separate raids in January and March this year.
Khawaja Daud Ahmed, director general of the Excise and Taxation Department, acknowledged that most permit holders were making alcohol for sale rather than use in medicine.
He said the department was outlining a mechanism to identify the manufacturers that are not genuine homeopaths. “We’ve already cancelled a number of permits,” he added.
In the future, he said, the government would not issue any such permits until the person applying for it had been verified as genuine by the National Council for Homeopathy. “This will help to minimise the role of corrupt and unscrupulous officials of the department,” he said. Alcohol is illegal for Muslims under sections 3 and 4 of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hud) Ordinance, 1979.
In Lahore, the Pearl Continental, Avari, Holiday Inn and Ambassador hotels are the only establishments with L-2 licences that allow them to sell liquor and serve it to guests. But Muslim Pakistanis are not allowed to drink there.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th, 2010
The vast majority of homeopathy laboratories and stores in the city are illegally selling alcohol instead of using it in the manufacture of medicine, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Thousands of vendors visit medicine markets in Gowalmandi, Boharwala Chowk at the intersection of Nicholson Road and Allama Iqbal Road, and Lohari Gate every day to buy this bootleg alcohol. “They can come and get it here without fear,” said Tanveer Ahmed, a chemist in the Boharwala market.
Much of it is sold in 450-millilitre bottles packaged as medicines like Alfalfa, China Off, Nux Vomica, Arnica, Avna Stiva, Bryonia, Graphite, Gloninc, Phosphorus and Rus Tox.
The Excise and Taxation Department has issued permits to produce ethanol to 150 homeopathy stores and laboratories, but only 10 or so actually produce medicine, according to an investigation by The Express Tribune. The rest sell alcohol for drinking.
Homeopathy permits are of two types: L-42/D for the manufacture of potencies and L-42/J for the manufacture of mother tincture. Over 400 chemists operate homoeopathic medicine stores in the city’s markets.
“Most permit holders manufacture and sell alcohol purely for drinking. They have no concern with making medicine,” said Homeopathic Doctor Khalid Mehmood Chaudhry, general secretary of the Homoeopathic Doctors, Pharmacists and Chemists Association of Pakistan.
“And many of them are non-professionals who do not even known the basics of homoeopathy. All this takes place with the connivance of excise officials,” he said.
Chaudhry said only around 15 per cent of the alcohol manufactured by permit holders was being used in the production of medicine. He estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the city’s population used homoeopathic medicines.
He said the bootlegging was hurting the profession. “The real homoeopathic manufacturers and practitioners are embarrassed by this business,” he said. Homeopathic Doctor Hamza Bukhari, the registrar of the association, said the alcohol was being transported to other districts of Punjab from the wholesale markets in Gowalmandi and Boharwala Chowk. These markets have been around for 50 years, but alcohol sale became more common about 15 years ago, said chemists who work there.
Neighbourhoods near the Boharwala market have been hurt too. Resident Nazir Ahmed said he was tired of seeing alcoholics wandering around his area looking to buy alcohol.
Nusrat Bibi, another resident, said several young men in the area had become addicted to the freely available liquor. She complained that she could no longer get fresh air without the smell of distilling alcohol hanging heavy in the atmosphere.
A senior police officer confirmed that many homoeopathy doctors were illegally making liquor and that it was the duty of the excise department to stop them. “There are also several criminals who have set up factories without permits and they make what is called ‘desi’ liquor,” he said.
Ali Abbas, an inspector posted at CIA Lahore, said police had seized some 4,500 litres of alcohol from a homoeopathy lab in Manawan police station limits in two separate raids in January and March this year.
Khawaja Daud Ahmed, director general of the Excise and Taxation Department, acknowledged that most permit holders were making alcohol for sale rather than use in medicine.
He said the department was outlining a mechanism to identify the manufacturers that are not genuine homeopaths. “We’ve already cancelled a number of permits,” he added.
In the future, he said, the government would not issue any such permits until the person applying for it had been verified as genuine by the National Council for Homeopathy. “This will help to minimise the role of corrupt and unscrupulous officials of the department,” he said. Alcohol is illegal for Muslims under sections 3 and 4 of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hud) Ordinance, 1979.
In Lahore, the Pearl Continental, Avari, Holiday Inn and Ambassador hotels are the only establishments with L-2 licences that allow them to sell liquor and serve it to guests. But Muslim Pakistanis are not allowed to drink there.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th, 2010