Boom times for beer brewer in dry country

RAWALPINDI - On the walls of the historic Murree brewery, Pakistan's sole producer of beer, hangs a slogan that its owners would wish upon the entire country. "Eat, drink and be Murree," puns the poster.

Understandably, making beer and whiskey in a Muslim country, where 97 per cent of the population is officially banned from enjoying your products, has never been an easy business.

Non-Muslims are exempt from the ban, but even for them obtaining a drink can be complicated: some five-star hotels require foreigners to affirm in writing that they are non-Muslims and will be responsible for anything that happens when they are under the influence before they can order a drink.

And amid the upsurge of militant violence of the past two years that has seen the Taleban attacking targets across the country, common sense might suggest that the fortunes of this establishment, which celebrates its 150th anniversary next year, might be on the wane.

Yet the opposite is happening: sales are booming - embarrassingly so.

"Sales are good," said Isphanyar Bhandara, the brewery's 36-year-old chief executive, "but we don't want to shout about it because that also brings negative publicity and criticism, because this is a Muslim country - and yet sales are growing."

While Muslims have been banned from buying or drinking alcohol since 1977, few private social gatherings among the country's political or business elite take place without the lubrication of liquor. A well-established network of bootleggers dealing in both locally produced and smuggled alcohol ensures that a drink in a private home is never far away.

For an institution such as the brewery, this two-faced attitude towards alcohol has meant several things.

Firstly, while Christians, Hindus, Zoroastrians and other non-Muslims officially constitute its customers, it is acknowledged that the majority of drinkers are Muslims who work their way through the easily-exploited permit system.

Non-Muslims and foreigners can acquire an official permit to buy 30 bottles of beer or a quart of spirits a month. Reports suggest that such permits are easy both to copy and to obtain fraudulently.

At the same time, the brewery and distillery have to operate within a set of cramping rules. They are not allowed to advertise their products and they have yet to be given permission to export them.

The Islamic Ideology Council of Pakistan, which advises the Government on policy issues, has made clear that it believes the export of alcohol abroad would damage the country's international image.

Yet the company, which this year produced the Muslim world's first 20-year-old malt, provides the state and federal authorities with around US$1 million ($1.4 million) a month in taxes and duty.

"Absurd as it sounds, it's true," said Bhandara.

"It's totally hypocritical. I'm talking to the Government at the moment about permission to export our beer to Britain as many Asians in Britain are familiar with our products. Carlsberg were going to brew and sell it in the UK but then they said the beer market was shrinking. I am saying to them we have a 20 per cent increase in beer sales year-on-year in a Muslim country."

A DROP OF HISTORY
The Murree Brewery, shares of which are publicly traded on the Pakistan stock exchange in Karachi, was initially established in 1860 among the woods and cooling breezes of the Murree Hills, 32km north of Islamabad, where the elevation of 1830m was perfect for producing light beer for British colonial troops. Growing demand for its award-winning products saw the company establish additional breweries in Quetta in 1886 and in Rawalpindi in 1889, the site of the current operation.

- INDEPENDENT