Pakistan Has a Drinking Problem

[Imran Khan]

Thats your saqafat



Jumma ko araam se wuzu karke piya karo.

You started drinking at 9 years of age. Will your son start at 6?

رات بہت شراب پی رات بہت پڑھی نماز

ایک وضو میں ہو گئی مجھ سے کئی کئی نماز

تم تو اذان دے کے یار جانے کہاں چلے گئے

مسجد جسم کیا بتائے کیسے پڑھی گئی نماز

میرے بغیر ہو نہ پائی کوئی نماز زندگی

ہوگی مگر مرے بغیر میری وہ آخری نماز

میں بھی بہت نشے میں تھا نشے میں تھا امام بھی

اس نے پڑھائی جانے کیا میں نے بھی کیا پڑھی نماز

بت کدہ تھا کہ مے کدہ ساقی تھا بت کہ تھا خدا

صبح رہا نہ کچھ بھی یاد رات بہت پڑھی نماز

کون سنائے گا مجھے میری اذان کی اذان

کون پڑھائے گا مجھے میری نماز کی نماز​

 

[El Sidd]

رات بہت شراب پی رات بہت پڑھی نماز

ایک وضو میں ہو گئی مجھ سے کئی کئی نماز

تم تو اذان دے کے یار جانے کہاں چلے گئے

مسجد جسم کیا بتائے کیسے پڑھی گئی نماز

میرے بغیر ہو نہ پائی کوئی نماز زندگی

ہوگی مگر مرے بغیر میری وہ آخری نماز

میں بھی بہت نشے میں تھا نشے میں تھا امام بھی

اس نے پڑھائی جانے کیا میں نے بھی کیا پڑھی نماز

بت کدہ تھا کہ مے کدہ ساقی تھا بت کہ تھا خدا

صبح رہا نہ کچھ بھی یاد رات بہت پڑھی نماز

کون سنائے گا مجھے میری اذان کی اذان

کون پڑھائے گا مجھے میری نماز کی نماز​

Bakwas Chor bache ko ghutti me sharab kyon nahi pilata?

Wo kammi ha or to brahmin kay to Akele peeta hai

 

[Imran Khan]

Bakwas Chor bache ko ghutti me sharab kyon nahi pilata?

Wo kammi ha or to brahmin kay to Akele peeta hai

 

[El Sidd]

Agar ye teri aulaad hai to aaj Tere liye dil me izzat barh gayi. To ne apne bache kay liye wahi pasand Kia jo to ne apne liye pasand kiya.

Agar to apne bache ko nahi pilata to tujhme or Diesel me farq nahi

 

[Azadkashmir]

@Night_Fury

Well that is the norm by default in PDF I guess. Cherry pick one or few isolated incidents/scums from a country. Then generalize it on the whole nation. Nothing new in it.

Usually done by trolls on pdf that live across the border.

 

[Baghial]

Have no idea what that is.

last month the food eaten at this grill in karachi---------- infants died due to sub standered old meant- dates expired , but was still served

 

[Solomon2]

A Hindu member of the government brought it up.

So what?

 

[waz]

It’s true that most people in Pakistan don’t drink because they are Muslim.

From the article...

 

[Solomon2]

It’s true that most people in Pakistan don’t drink because they are Muslim.

From the article...

The full paragraph is, "It’s true that most people in Pakistan don’t drink because they are Muslim. But many more don’t drink because they are Muslim and poor. Nobody abstains from drinking because it’s prohibited by law."

I really can't understand how both of the first two sentences can be logically true.

 

[Foxtrot Delta]

Well whole of pakistan doesnt do it but i bear witness that Alot of pakistaniz to look cool and give an impression of coolness or eliteness do casual drinking. I have friends who do, iv seen people who visit foreign countries like russia and china and these pakistaniz say we ain't in pakistan anymore do in rome as romans do but tye fact is they even drink back home.

Its an individuals own choice if they drink or dont drink, be muslim or non muslim but yea pakistan is supposed to be a muslim nation but Most of our elite Army men, politicians and well people of every occupation basically do drink Alcohol.

Most pakistaniz are Muslim by name and heritage not by heart or Personal choice.

I am a Muslim By choice Thank God Almighty visiting and living in china made me realize that God of Abraham Our creator gives us complete freedom do whatever u want however u want man has free will, but if u bend ur will according to the wishes of ur creator that is the true achievement.

Most Pakistaniz know the name Allah but they don't really know him.

I say this for Most Pakistaniz not all as I am a pakistani and as long as i live all pakistan can't be said to have these problems, and i know for a fact that there are thousands more like me in pakistan who are practising and knowledible Muslims (Believers in God of Abraham peace upon him, the one and only True God)

For those who drink inspite considering themselves to be the believers , well i am not the one to judge keep doing what u think is best for u and live ur life as u want. One should never listen to others and make up their own mind how to live their lives.

If u ask for a sincere advice "Quit if u care to be among the believers in hereafter (Kingdom Come)"

 

[PakSarzameen5823]

So what?

You stated that it is incorrect for Muslims to start dictating what other people's beliefs say, so I'm clarifying the matter to you by explaining that it wasn't a Muslim who made the claim in the first place.

 

[Dubious]

Here, I think:

Opinion
Pakistan Has a Drinking Problem
By Mohammed Hanif

• Dec. 2, 2016

KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistan was recently mesmerized by a bottle of Scotch whisky. On Oct. 30, as hundreds of supporters of the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (P.T.I.) were making their way to the capital Islamabad, with the declared intent of shutting down the city, the police searched the car of a P.T.I. politician and discovered a bottle of Johnny Walker Double Black.

Most Pakistanis had not seen a bottle of whisky in the news in a long time. Although there’s no ban on showing alcohol in the media, the subject rarely comes up in TV news. But this one bottle of whisky, waved around by a policeman, was broadcast on a loop. It became an emblem of the opposition’s immorality.

The politician claimed it contained honey. Yet later that evening, on a current affairs TV show, he put a sobering question to the other guests, “Which one of you doesn’t drink?” Complete silence.

If they said yes, they’d be implicating themselves. If they said no, nobody would believe them. For Muslims in Pakistan, drinking alcohol is prohibited and talking about it is taboo. Drinking and denying it is the oldest cocktail in the country.

It wasn’t always like this. The country was founded in 1947 by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who was known to indulge in the occasional drink. Alcohol shops and bars were banned in 1977 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a person who had publicly proclaimed, “Yes, I do drink alcohol, but at least I don’t drink the blood of the poor.”

A worker at a brewery in the city of Rawalpindi in 2012. Credit: Faisal Mahmood/Reuters

That year, facing protests over an allegedly rigged election that his party had won, Mr. Bhutto decided to declare prohibition. He probably believed that he and his comrades would continue to enjoy their Scotch in private. He was hanged two years later.

Since those days, Pakistan’s rich have continued to enjoy their liquor at home and members’ clubs, but the less privileged have been persecuted and flogged, and are at risk of being imprisoned, for possessing and consuming alcohol.

It’s true that most people in Pakistan don’t drink because they are Muslim. But many more don’t drink because they are Muslim and poor. Nobody abstains from drinking because it’s prohibited by law.

When alcohol was banned by Mr. Bhutto, an exception was made for non-Muslims. They would be issued licenses and allotted a quota. Non-Muslim visiting foreigners would be able to order a drink in their hotel rooms, but the hotels would make them fill out a form saying they needed the alcohol for medicinal purposes.

In the province of Sindh, where I live, licensed shops, usually called wine stores, have operated even since prohibition. The stores are supposed to sell only to non-Muslims, but they don’t discriminate. Owners have to pay off the police, though, and any dispute can result in the shops having to close down.

The laws can be cruel and absurd. Last summer, the local police in Karachi banned liquor stores from keeping freezers, in order to stop consumers from buying a cold beer. Apparently chilled beer was a threat to our faith and to peace, but warm beer was just warm beer.

In late October, a High Court judge ordered the closure of all these stores after accepting a petition that said alcohol is prohibited not only in Islam but in Christianity and Hinduism, too. This ban means that only those who can afford imported liquor will keep buying from a flourishing network of bootleggers.

Others will have to buy one of the many versions of moonshine brewed all over the country, which routinely blind and kill consumers. Two years ago, when liquor stores were shut in Sindh over the Eid holiday, more than 25 people died after drinking home-brew. Survivors report that if the stuff doesn’t kill you or blind you, it isn’t that bad.

Members of Parliament and law enforcers and industrialists and bureaucrats and young professionals and even some religious scholars can drink with impunity. A taxi driver trying to score a beer on the go risks a jail term or losing his eyesight to moonshine.

It’s a law-and-order issue, you see. The rich drink in their own homes and frolic or puke on their own lawns, but the assumption is that if the poor get drunk in public spaces, they’ll make a nuisance. Which is why those who can afford fine scotches can also afford to give everyone else lectures about our religious duties. It seems that those who suck the blood of poor people want to make sure it’s not tainted with cheap alcohol.

No wonder Pakistanis go to any lengths to ensure they’re not seen drinking, even when they smell like a barrel of liquor. I once had dinner with a 74-year-old grandfather who sipped from his spiked bottle of cola but worried that one of the children at the table would get their Pepsis mixed up with his.

I’ve tried to interview my neighborhood liquor-shop owner, but he has discouraged me. There are enough problems in Pakistan, why don’t you write about them? But is this Bombay Sapphire knockoff you’re selling any good? How would I know? he said, I have never had a drop. Not even for medicinal purposes.

Mohammed Hanif is the author of the novels “A Case of Exploding Mangoes” and “Our Lady of Alice Bhatti,” and the librettist for the opera “Bhutto.”

A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 4, 2016, on Page SR9 of the New York edition with the headline: Pakistan Has a Drinking Problem

Old article...

Thread closed