Tag: liquor

  • Customs seizes smuggled liquor worth Rs6.48 million in Karachi

    Customs seizes smuggled liquor worth Rs6.48 million in Karachi

    During a raid on the outskirts of Karachi on Thursday, Pakistan Customs personnel recovered a massive quantity of imported liquor worth millions of rupees.

    According to a Customs spokesman, monitoring was increased at the Moachko checkpoint after the Customs Enforcement Collectorate got information that alcohol was being smuggled to Karachi from Quetta under the cover of official vehicles.

    When a car with a government license plate and an armed guard was sighted at the checkpoint, customs anti-smuggling personnel signaled the driver to pull up, but the driver instead sped away.

    When the officials gave chase, the driver of the car purposefully began hitting customs vehicles, and the guard resorted to firing. Because the road was packed and there was a threat to public safety, customs officers refrained from firing fire.

    According to a spokesman, when they were around Shershah Chowk, the driver and guard hopped out of the vehicle and fled, taking advantage of a traffic jam on the other side of the road. During a check of the vehicle, 348 liquor bottles worth Rs6,480,000 were seized, along with other items discovered.

    Read more: PTA to take action against advertising of illegal housing societies on social media

    The entire estimated value of the products and car was Rs10,480,000. An FIR has been filed, and a manhunt has been initiated to find the suspects.

  • Atiqa Odho acquitted in nine-year-old liquor case

    Atiqa Odho acquitted in nine-year-old liquor case

    Nine years after Atiqa Odho was booked in a case for allegedly possessing liquor at Islamabad International Airport (IIA), the actor has been acquitted by a court in Rawalpindi.

    According to details, the judge said that there was no evidence against the actor. Odho had been booked for allegedly smuggling two bottles of foreign liquor in her bag while she was checking in for Pakistan International Airline’s (PIA) Karachi-bound flight PK-301 in June 2011. The liquor had been confiscated on the spot as per the law and Odho, who was secretary information of Pervez Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) at the time, had been allowed to travel.

    However, Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was CJP back then, took suo motu notice of the incident after the news was widely discussed on television. He directed police and Customs officials to clarify why a case had not been registered against the actor. Following the notice, Customs officials sent a lawsuit to the Airport police station, which then registered a case against Odho under Section 3/4 of the Prohibition Order of 1979.

    The actress was granted interim bail three days later from the court of Rawalpindi Additional Session Judge Iqbal Chadhar. The court also restrained the police from arresting or harassing the artist. The police later recorded her statement and presented the charge sheet after 14 days due to pressure from the Supreme Court.

    Odho regularly presented herself in court for six months until she was granted immunity from appearing before the court until the final verdict.

    Read more – ‘Pyar Ke Sadkay’: The curious case of Mahjabeen’s pregnancy

    The actor has not yet responded to her acquittal.

  • NAB summons Buzdar for ‘issuing illegal liquor licences’

    NAB summons Buzdar for ‘issuing illegal liquor licences’

    The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar on August 12 for what it says was illegal issuance of liquor licences.

    The anti-graft watchdog has accused the provincial chief executive of illegally using powers of Excise director general (DG) and issuing liquor permits to a private hotel in Lahore.

    The hotel in question is the same as the one in regard to which reports had falsely claimed that a local company was setting up a “liquor bar” at the Allama Iqbal International Airport after approval from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led Punjab government.

    “A section of local media wrongly reported that the provincial government has granted a license to a company to sell liquor at the airport,” then spokesperson to the CM, Dr Shahbaz Gill, had said in a video message in January last year.

    He had further said that an under-construction five-star hotel near the airport had sought permission, which was duly granted after all the legal requirements were fulfilled.

    “This is not something new and all the major hotels in the country are permitted under the laws,” Gill said.

    However, the issuance has reportedly landed the Punjab CM in hot water.

    Earlier, on May 24, in view of the threat of sale of poisonous liquor on the occasion of Eidul Fitr, Punjab Excise and Taxation DG Hafiz Ziaul Mustafa issued a letter to stop the sale of illegal liquor and take necessary steps, The Express Tribune reported.

    Some unscrupulous elements use clinical alcohol, sedative tablets and juices of rotten fruits to brew liquor which is then sold in bottles of local and foreign brands. In the past scores of people have died and many more have gone blind from this locally brewed concoction.

    The DG also directed to pay special attention to liquor license holders on the occasion of Eid. A letter issued from the office of the DG said that several people have been affected by drinking toxic liquor in recent years which has embarrassed the government.

    Bootleggers making this toxic moonshine were likely to bring out their product on the festive occasion of Eid to grab the merriment mood of poor people who could not afford a pint of legally sold liquor available from licenced excise shops.

  • Islamic body to decide if minorities in Pakistan can hold liquor licenses

    Islamic body to decide if minorities in Pakistan can hold liquor licenses

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has given the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) the authority to decide whether minorities in Pakistan can hold liquor licences.

    According to reports, this was announced in a verdict by the IHC as it heard a petition against the issuance of these licences.

    The court said that the CII the authority to decide this as licences are being granted on the basis of religion. The petition was disposed of after it was forward to the CII.

    The Pakistan United Christian Movement and Centre of Rule of Law had filed the petition in the Islamabad High Court. The petitioners said alcohol is also prohibited in Christianity but licenses are being given in its name.

    The petitioners also presented a list of 340 liquor licence holders to the court.

  • Police say waiters at Cafe Aylanto guilty of supplying liquor

    The investigation into a raid at Lahore’s popular Cafe Aylanto on MM Alam Road in September has held three of its waiters guilty.

    According to a report in Dawn News, the police concluded the case by holding three waiters responsible after a joint raid was conducted by the excise department and police at the restaurant in September. The police have submitted the investigation report to the court for further proceeding. No further details regarding the incident have been shared as to why the waiters have been held responsible instead of the owner.

    Cafe Aylanto was sealed on September 7 after a raiding party, led by Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Masood Bashir Warraich and Model Town assistant commissioner, had claimed recovering imported liquor from the restaurant. An FIR [First Information Report] had been lodged and interestingly did not include the restaurant owner’s name and only 13 employees — mostly waiters — were arrested at the time. Several bottles of liquor were also seized and a criminal case against the outlet’s administration was lodged.

    Warraich had earlier been accused of deliberately delaying the renewal of liquor licences of four hotels in Lahore after their managements allegedly refused to pay him 30 percent commission from daily liquor sales.

    “I am being accused of corruption just because I implemented the rules,” Warraich had said while rejecting the claims, adding that before he took charge, all four hotels were selling over 100,000 liquor bottles each illegally every day which reduced to about 8,000 each after he intervened.

    After the incident, Gulberg circle ASP Abdul Wahab and Warraich had been transferred from their position. However, later it was revealed that the officers had committed no violation and their transfers were politically motivated.

    A source said that many in police circles believed that someone in Islamabad’s power corridors took up the matter, ensuring the officer’s ouster from Punjab knowing that he had committed no mistake.

    The case was lodged against the café on an application submitted by excise inspector Akhtar Zaman Sindhu. Before taking action against the ASP, an impression was created that the contents of the first information report (FIR) were changed in favour of the café owner.

    However, during the investigation, the allegations were proved false as the contents of the application and the FIR appeared the same, the source added.