Nearly after 50 years, Pakistan resumes alcoholic beverage exports

Karachi: Pakistan’s only locally-owned brewery has started exporting alcohol - a product that continues to remain banned for the country’s majority Muslim population for nearly five decades now.

Murree Brewery has started exporting its beers and other alcoholic spirits to countries which are not part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of 57 nations with significant Muslim populations.

In April, alcoholic drinks were exported to countries that include the United Kingdom, Japan, Portugal and Thailand, the company’s export manager Rameez Shah told PTI on phone.

For several years now, Murree Brewery has been exporting non-alcoholic drinks - mainly products like packaged juice, mineral water and fruit-flavoured malts, among other things.

In 2025, it received the Pakistan government’s approval to export alcohol products, Shah said.

Murree Brewery was founded in the 1860s by British entrepreneurs Edward Dyer and Edward Whymper in a hill station named Murree (now in Pakistan) to ensure an adequate supply of beer to British troops.

It was later bought by a Parsi family before the partition of British India in 1947. The company’s current chief is Isphanyar Bhandara, who is also a member of the National Assembly in Pakistan.

Bhandara is learnt to have lobbied for an export license after the Pakistan government allowed a Chinese-run brewery and distillery in 2021 to produce alcoholic beverages in the Balochistan province to cater to the thousands of Chinese nationals working on various projects, either private ones or those that are part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Alcohol was available to all Pakistanis until 1977 when then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto banned it under pressure from Islamist parties.

The ban came as a major blow to Murree Brewery. After that, the company could cater only to non-Muslim residents of Pakistan and people from other countries visiting, who can buy from government-registered shops and consume only in designated places.

Before the ban, Murree Brewery used to ship its alcohol to many countries, including India, Afghanistan and the US, Shah said.

With export permission granted, Murree Brewery is now working with its distributors in other countries who were previously trading their non-alcoholic products. The idea, Shah said, is to “first establish a network before we can crank up production”.

Shah said that over the last several years, the company has built a major revenue source out of non alcoholic beverages. Last financial year, it recorded earnings of USD 100 million. Now it hopes to bring in foreign revenue, said Shah, adding that their focus is on joint ventures and exploring new territories.