With decades-long restrictions lifted, a Pakistani brewery has started exporting beer

"Alcohol is banned for Pakistan's Muslim majority, but is still consumed. Murree Brewery has operated within this paradox for decades. It's the oldest and best-known brewery in the country founded in the 19th century by the British during their colonial rule of India and acquired by a family in Pakistan in 1947, the year the new country was created through India's partition."

"The brewery survived a prohibition imposed in 1977 by then-Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and tightened by the military dictator who overthrew him, Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who imposed lashing as punishment for drinking alcohol. There were exceptions for sales to non-Muslims and foreigners, and Murree Brewery was allowed to continue operating in Pakistan but not to resume exporting alcoholic products as it had before the 1977 ban."

""The theory behind the export ban was that an Islamic country should not be seen as exporting a vice," says Murree Brewery's CEO Isphanyar Bhandara, whose grandfather acquired the brewery in 1947. His family is part of the country's tiny Parsi minority, the descendants of Persian Zoroastrians a significant factor in their ability to operate a successful brewery in an Islamic republic for three generations."

Murree Brewery produces more than one million cans monthly in Rawalpindi and distributes them across Pakistan. Alcohol is banned for the Muslim majority but continues to be consumed, with legal sales allowed to non-Muslims and foreigners. The brewery was founded in the 19th century by the British and was acquired by a Parsi family in 1947. The company survived the 1977 prohibition and stricter penalties under military rule, endured a nearly 50-year export ban justified by concerns about exporting a perceived vice, and has recently resumed overseas shipments.

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