Pakistan: Of Terrorism & Tipplers
Nov 5th, 2009 | Comments
Pakistan, rightly or wrongly, is generally described as an “exporter” of terrorism. Now it is trying to export something different – its famous Murree beer produced at the nearly 150-year-old Murree brewery, Pakistan’s sole producer of beer.
“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,” reports The Independent.
“And amid the upsurge of militant violence of the last two years that has seen the Taliban attacking targets across the country, setting fire to girls’ schools and even banning the sale of videos and DVDs, 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.’
“Pervaded by a rich smell of fermenting yeast and equipped with Victorian maturing cellars, the brewery is located in the heart of the military cantonment area of Rawalpindi, the garrison city where 30 people died in a suicide bomb attack earlier this week.
“The scenes within the thick stone walls are reminiscent of a British brewery of the remote past. Located opposite the residence of the Chief of the Army Staff, the brewery says it has never received a direct threat from the militants.” More here…
The Murree Brewery Company Ltd. was established in 1860 to meet the beer requirements of British personnel at Ghora Gali near the resort place of Murree. In the 1880s the company established a further brewery in Rawalpindi and a distillery in Quetta. More here…
To visit the official website of the Muree Brewery please click here…
The vintage photo above shows the brewery at the Murree hill station.
