The Pakistani banker told his story nervously, kneading his hands as he spoke. His wife had deserted him, his family was furious and his career had stalled.
“My problem is whisky,” he said, shaking his head with regret.
The 32-year-old professional was sitting in an addiction clinic, hidden down a quiet street in the capital, Islamabad. He had relapsed from the expensive treatment program twice already; now he had been dry for more than three months.
“This time it’s for good,” he said, with just a glimmer of self-doubt.
Pakistan has been dry for much longer — since 1977 — and drinkers risk severe punishment: 80 lashes of the whip under strict Islamic laws. However, the law is ignored, alcohol is widely available and, for those who go too far, addiction clinics offering help are quietly flourishing.
“There’s plenty of business,” said Sadaqat Ali, a leading addiction counselor whose chain of clinics treated 500 alcoholics this year. Ali estimates that 10 million Pakistanis drink alcohol, 1 million of whom have a problem.
“With our culture of hospitality, it’s hard to say ‘no,’” he said.
Earlier this month, cricket authorities mounted an investigation into claims that a national player, Mohammad Sami, was involved in a drunken brawl in a Rawalpindi hotel.
The 29-year-old Test bowler denied he had been drinking, calling the row a “misunderstanding.”
Demand for alcoholism counseling is so brisk that many clinics now take out prominent newspaper ads, some depicting a depressed man nursing a glass of scotch — a rare public nod toward a thinly veiled drinking culture.
Waiters serve scotch on the sidelines of society weddings and corporate functions; ministers drink openly at functions, but hide their glasses when photographers come round. Bootleggers offer home delivery, so that ordering a bottle of booze is as easy as calling for a pizza and it’s likely to arrive more quickly.
The last time a Pakistani drinker received 80 lashes was under autocratic former Pakistani president Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s; these days the culture has changed. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf made little secret of his fondness for a drink; neither does his successor, Asif Ali Zardari.
The less well-off drink homemade hooch, which can have a nasty kick: Three years ago, 50 Karachi residents died, and more went blind, from a bad batch of moonshine. However, for the rich, the risk is in drinking too much of the good stuff. Ali has counted bureaucrats, politicians, army generals and even the families of mullahs among his clients.
“That’s our target market. We call it the golden triangle: rich, educated and influential,” he said.
Treatment is expensive by local standards, typically costing upward of US$132 a night. It’s not quite the Betty Ford clinic: Clients stay in a modest room and are forced to engage in intense counseling involving their own relatives. Controversially, some clinics have engaged in “forceful” interventions, drugging alcoholics at the instigation of desperate relatives to kickstart the cure.
The other option is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which has at least one group in Karachi. Unlike the clinics, it is hard to find: no ads, no phone numbers, just a simple Web page.
“Most people find it through word of mouth,” said a former member, adding that it has operated for more than 15 years.
Years ago, a handful of parliamentarians argued for a reversal of the alcohol law, but with the rise of the Taliban, such talk has receded. In 2007, a suicide bomber set off his device outside a beer shop in the Islamabad Marriott Hotel.
Alcoholics seeking help require discretion. However, in Pakistan’s small middle class, that can be tricky.
The former AA member recognized several other members at the meeting: “It should be called A, not AA, in Pakistan — because there’s not much anonymity.”
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS