General Tikka Khan barred the serving of alcoholic beverages in Army mess halls. Interestingly,that this ban was ironically removed in 1976 by Gen Zia! He lifted the prohibition just before he replaced Tikka Khan as army chief. This was done on the request of military officers.
Pakistan heroin addiction not only shot up due to the sudden influx of the drug from Afghanistan during the 1980s’ civil war there, but also because of the alcohol prohibition imposed in Pakistan in April 1977. The prohibition was ordered by the Z.A. Bhutto regime which at the time was under pressure from a violent protest movement by an alliance of right-wing opposition parties.
2015 paper by researchers associated with the University of Sydney in Australia (Basma Al-Ansari, Anne Marie Thow, Caroline A. Day, and K.M. Conigrave), pointed out that consumption of alcoholic beverages in Muslim countries where a prohibition was in place actually grew after a proscription on alcohol came into effect.
The Sindh government earns revenues of over four billion rupees annually from these shops which are also important employment avenues for Sindh’s non-Muslims, deaths and injury caused by tainted ‘moonshine’ whisky is higher in Punjab where there are no ‘wine shops.’
Around 10 million consume various forms and brands depending on their purchasing power, but even if we assume that they purchase the cheapest possible kind for ease of understanding, an industry of 10 million consumers would generate significant revenue for the government.
