LAHORE – Alcohol sale will start next month in a hotel built near theLahore airport. The Excise and Taxation Department Punjab had issued alicence to sell alcohol to the Royal International hotel in January.
The license has been issued in Lahore after 22 years. The last hotel to getit was Holiday Inn in 1997.
The latest hotel getting the alcohol sale licence is owned by Peer BaghaiShah.
Naya Daur reached out to journalist Nadeem Farooq Paracha to know his viewsregarding the issuance of the license. He said that if Pakistan was torevive its tourism industry, then it had to come up with a workable policyregarding the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
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“We can adopt one from the many policies in this context that are in placein Muslim countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, theUAE, etc. In fact even Saudi Arabia is now thinking of allowing alcohol inrestaurants which they plan to build on special tourist resorts,” he added.
Currently, now, five hotels are selling alcohol in Lahore. Are we closer tolifting the ban? Time will tell!
