The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday directed the Sindh Excise and Taxation Department's Director General to initiate the process of revoking licences of 120 wine shops in the province granted in violation of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order 1979.
The SHC Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who was heading the bench that was hearing the petition filed by the citizens, Muhammad Zafar Muavia and Shehryar David, directed the director general to ensure issuance of notices to liquor shop owners in connection with cancellation of their licenses within two days. Earlier, the DG Excise & Taxation department had submitted its report, stating that presently there are 59 registered wine shops running in the city, on which the court express its concerns, remarking that it seems that there are more wine shops in Karachi than number of non-Muslims in the metropolis.
The bench had directed the department to inform the court about the criteria for the issuance of license for the wine shops. There are 59 wine shops functioning legally in the Metropolis but according to the NADRA report, there are at least 268,363 non-Muslims living in the city out of which 196,122 are Christians and 72,241 are Hindus. One of the petitioners, Muhammad Zafar Muavia informed the court that a wine shop namely Lucky Traders is being shifted to North Karachi Township from Korangi. He maintained that there is a possibility that the area's people especially the youth will caught into bad habits because due the wine shop in the locality. He requested the court to restrain the authorities concerned from shifting the wine shop to North Karachi. The petitioners had submitted that as per rules, wine shops should not be allowed in the in Muslim vicinities but many licenses have been issued for opening liquor shops in the areas where non-Muslims are not in majority which is the violation of the rules.