Pakistan’s biggest brewery is evolving from its 165-year-old liquor
legacy
[July 05, 2025] By
RIAZAT BUTT
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — A pungent fug of malt and yeastiness hangs
over Murree Brewery, Pakistan ’s biggest and oldest producer of
alcoholic drinks.
The company is an outlier in a country where alcohol is outlawed for
everyone except non-Muslims, who make up some 9 million people out of
241 million. Pakistan, an Islamic republic, banned booze for Muslims in
the 1970s.
Murree Brewery has strong financials despite the prohibition, thanks to
its history, scant competition and a small, thirsty and predominantly
elite consumer base.
But the government exerts significant control over the sale and
marketing of alcoholic beverages through red tape and high taxes,
pushing brewery chairman Isphanyar Bandhara to expand the company's
footprint in Pakistan's non-alcoholic drinks industry, which, although
bigger, is more crowded and less lucrative.
“Even I tell my staff of about 2,200 that we cannot sit on our laurels
by selling alcohol,” said Bandhara, the third generation of his family
to run the 165-year-old business that was founded by the British. “It’s
a restricted market, so we have to rely and focus more on the
non-alcoholic side. That’s where I think I would like to flex my muscles
and take credit, rather than being a liquor baron.”
The brewery already manufactures energy drinks, juices and malted
beverages, but they are not as well known as products from big
international brands. However, this part of the business is registering
double-digit growth, and Bandhara wants to cash in on the country's
youth bulge. Around 64% of the population is under 30.
The state has a lot of say
Pakistan’s government determines the brewery’s alcohol prices, points of
sale and customer base. Last year it took $35 million from the brewery's
revenue in taxes. The company cannot advertise its alcoholic beverages
or expand that part of the business inside Pakistan. Online shopping is
unavailable.
The brewery is permitted to export beer to countries outside the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member bloc, even though there
is a “big demand for liquor and beer” in Muslim-majority countries,
Bandhara said.
Meanwhile, more Pakistanis drink far more sodas and juices, with
billions of dollars in sales every year. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola dominate,
but there are also homegrown brands.
“The multinationals are thriving in Pakistan,” Bandhara said. “It’s a
rewarding market. There might be less money (in non-alcoholic drinks),
but it’s more secure.”
Murree Brewery's malted drinks line is packaged in a way that strongly
resembles its beery counterparts. The taste, while not unpleasant, is
distinctive, sweet and slightly yeasty.
How to drink in Pakistan
Alcohol is a niche item in Pakistan. Even cooking ingredients like red
wine vinegar, and buying essentials like cough medicine, is hard because
of their alcohol content, however minuscule.
Five-star hotels slip a drinks list into the in-room dining menu or
decant alcohol into a more discreet vessel, like a teapot. Some
restaurants, usually upscale, allow diners to bring a bottle but seat
them away from others or shield the pour from prying eyes. There is
often a windowless, joyless bar in major Pakistani cities.
Non-Muslims — nationals and foreigners — can get a liquor permit
allowing them to buy limited amounts of alcohol. Diplomats and the elite
are a rich source of booze, with well-stocked cabinets and sometimes
entire rooms dedicated to drinks.
There are also wine shops, but only in some provinces and run by
non-Muslims. Some wine shops deliver to customers waiting in their cars,
for discretion. Home delivery is also available.
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An employee of the Murree Brewery packs liquor bottles at a
production unit of the factory, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Monday,
June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
 “It’s not expensive to buy beer,”
said Faisal, a Pakistani Muslim drinker who is in his 30s and lives
in the province of Sindh. He only gave his first name because he is
breaking the law. “A local beer will cost 500 rupees ($1.76), but
you can save 50 rupees if you don’t want it chilled."
He added: “Beer is cheaper than coffee in Pakistan, but you only
need one coffee whereas you need a lot of beer."
Minorities and the booze market
Non-sanctioned alcohol drinking in Pakistan is punishable by 80
lashes of a whip, although the Federal Shariat Court deemed the
penalty un-Islamic in a 2009 ruling.
Alcohol is considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam. Although a sin
and not a crime, scholars and religious authorities typically point
to a verse in the Quran that calls intoxicants “the work of Satan”
and tells believers to avoid them. They also cite sayings of the
Prophet Muhammad and the effects of alcohol.
Nonetheless, stacked on pallets at Murree Brewery on a recent day
were boxes of booze. The beer was heading to government-authorized
retailer Pearl Continental Hotel in the eastern city of Lahore. The
whiskey was going to Sindh, home to religious minorities including
Hindus and Parsis.
Bandhara, who is Parsi, is one of the brewery’s leading tasters.
Only non-Muslims can sample the company’s alcoholic products.
“We can’t just force someone to drink an inferior drink, so it has
to be quality,” Bandhara said. “If the German Embassy, the Chinese
Embassy and a lot of European embassies are my customers for beer,
I’m comfortable on my quality.”
Competition from the Chinese
Hundreds of Pakistani distilleries produce the intoxicating agent
ethanol, which is mostly exported. Home brewers are another source
of alcoholic beverages. But homemade liquor containing poisonous
methanol has proved fatal, and dozens of people have died over the
years.
Murree Brewery’s closest competition for alcohol is the Chinese-run
Hui Coastal Brewery and Distillery Limited, which began making beer
in southwestern Balochistan in 2021, largely for the thousands of
Chinese workers there.
Nobody from Hui was available to comment.
The granting of a licence to Hui in conservative Balochistan took
Bandhara aback. He said he was unafraid of competition but wanted a
level playing field.
Decades ago, his family wanted to set up a brewery in Punjab,
Pakistan's most populous province. Bandhara said authorities told
the family to keep their heads down because they were in a Muslim
country.
“If the Islamic lecture is for me, why was the license given to the
Chinese brewery?" he asked. "We are a liquor company, and we are the
easiest to throw stones at and to criticize.”
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