With billions of dollars in debt and no new revenue generation stream, Pakistan has now taken a U-turn on alcohol. While the 50-year-old ban on alcohol continues to be in place for the citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the export lines are opening so that the inflow of dollars can be increased. Pakistan’s only locally-owned Murree Brewery has received a fresh lease of life with an export license, all thanks to an indirect role of China.
Notably, Chinese workers working in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor needed alcohol and for that, Pakistan government allowed a Chinese-run brewery and distillery to operate in 2021 in the Balochistan province. So, making it a base, Murree Brewery’s current chief Isphanyar Bhandara, a member of the National Assembly (Pakistani Parliament) worked with the Pakistani governemnt officials and finally managed to secure an export license. The brewery has now started exporting its beers and other alcoholic spirits to non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation nations. The OIC is a bloc of 57 nations with significant Muslim populations, and most have a ban on alcohol. The new alcohol export destinations for Pakistan now include the United Kingdom, Japan, Portugal and Thailand, said Pakistani media reports.
Established in the 1860s by British entrepreneurs Edward Dyer and Edward Whymper, Murree Brewery was built in the scenic hill station of Murree (now part of Pakistan) with a singular mission: keeping British colonial troops well-supplied with beer.
Ownership of the historic brewery eventually shifted when a Parsi family acquired the business prior to the 1947 partition of British India. For the first three decades of Pakistan’s independence, alcohol remained legally and readily available to all citizens. This came to an abrupt halt in 1977, when then-Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, bowing to intense pressure from Islamist political factions, instituted a nationwide ban on alcohol consumption.
The 1977 ban dealt a staggering blow to Murree Brewery’s thriving domestic market. Overnight, the company’s legal customer base was drastically restricted; it could cater exclusively to Pakistan’s non-Muslim minority residents and foreign visitors. Under these strict regulatory frameworks, consumption is tightly controlled, allowing buyers to purchase alcohol only from government-registered retail shops and consume it within designated private spaces.
This domestic crackdown marked a sharp departure from the brewery’s golden era. Prior to the prohibition, Murree Brewery was a globally connected exporter, routinely shipping its iconic alcohol brands across international borders to markets including India, Afghanistan, and the United States. However, the company that recorded a turnover of around 100 million US dollars last financial year is now looking to add some more foreign revenue to its starved kitty.
