Lahore Hotel Licensed To Sell Alcohol, Sale To Start Next Month
Punjab Excise and Taxation Department has granted license to a hotel near the Allama Iqbal International Aiport in Lahore to sell alcohol and the sale will begin from April.
According to The News, the license had been issued in January this year to Royal Internation hotel. This is the first time since 1997 that a license to sell alcohol has been granted to a hotel in Lahore. In 1997, Lahore’s Holiday Inn was granted the license.
Excise and Taxation Director General Akram Ashraf said the license was granted to the hotel owned by Peer Baghai Shah on orders of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.
Several hotels had applied for issuance of the license in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s rule but the applications were rejected by the then CM Shehbaz Sharif.
Naya Daur reached out to journalist Nadeem Farooq Paracha to know his views regarding the issuance of the license. He said that if Pakistan was to revive its tourism industry, then it had to come up with a workable policy regarding the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
“We can adopt one from the many policies in this context that are in place in Muslim countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, the UAE, etc. In fact even Saudi Arabia is now thinking of allowing alcohol in restaurants which they plan to build on special tourist resorts,” he added.
He also recalled that Pakistan once had a pretty moderate and effective policy regarding alcohol before 1977.
Weeks before he was removed as prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto placed restrictions on sale and purchase of alchohol. Since then, only members of non-Muslim minorities are allowed to apply for alcohol permits.
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Hahahah…Just wana to say lanat
Why lanat, you must be Muhajir.
It should be allowed to non Muslims only.
Even Liquor is freely available in Bangladesh, Malayasia, Brunie Daruss Salam.
Good decision to attract foreign besides fighting ever increasing trend of Drugs among younger generation .
Tabdeeli aa gayi hee. Wah ree Waseem Akram plus…
Alcohol is haram, no one needs to implement that on anyone. Over 6 million Pakistanis live abroad, most of them have the facility to buy it but they dont. Same as millions of muslims accross the world. Islamic teachings need to be taufht rather tban bans. Above all in Pakistan alcohol is easily available to who ever wants to have it. Allowing it will let people know how bad it is islamically and logically. Storng norms need to be implemented rather than bans.
Free availability is one thing. But state allowing it is another matter, especially in the only country that say is meaning is لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله.
No amount of foreign investment is more dearer than Allah’s command.
Allah Pak hidayat dey.
Alcohol is harmless in small doses.
Very harmful if used as an intoxicant.
But it is not haram.
Three mentions in the Quran, none banning it. The last mention is the strongest. The first is praising for making the juice of grapes.
Either we are too late to activate such stupidity or we are being away from basic Islamic rule.
PTI is making Pakistan out of true islam and replacing it with liberal islam which are munafiq of this age.
New Pakistan so called Madina ki raesast
انا لله وانا اليه راجعون what a stupid argument,in Raisat e Medina Munawara there was not such sale,you need to stop all unislamic activities.We do not need any model,the model is our beloved Prophet صلى لله عليه وسلم .Or the secularists will face the wrath.
Imran khan ko ye kahu ga lanaz teri maa joss ny tuj ko paida kiya kia ayesi thi madina ki riyasat ?
Welcome to the riaasat of Madina
Its a great decision for our country to improvise and get some tourism
As this country is not just for ngo s ?