MULTAN, Sept 8: District Nazim Riaz Husain Qureshi has accused the officials of police and excise departments of having a role in the bootlegging racket, which has been playing with the lives of people.
According to an official handout, the Nazim was presiding over a meeting to discuss steps to check illegal bootlegging in the area. "Such a crime (bootlegging) cannot be committed without the patronage of corrupt elements in the police and excise departments," the handout quoted the Nazim as saying.
The Nazim directed the two departments' higher-ups to do effective monitoring in order to curb illegal bootlegging in the district. He also directed Nazims of the union councils to keep a vigilant eye in their areas and immediately inform the authorities concerned whenever they found someone involved in illegal manufacturing or selling of liquor.
He said laws were there to penalize the culprits, but there was a need to implement those in letter and spirit. He ordered the EDO (health) to furnish his office with all the information about the number of people died or hospitalized due to intake of poisonous liquor in the district.
He said from now onward he would hold a monthly meeting to review performance of all the departments responsible for checking liquor trade in the area. The Nazim said he would also talk to the provincial government to bring about necessary changes in the laws to check illegal liquor trade in a more effective way.
DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal informed the meeting that the alleged culprit figured out as the main character behind bootlegging in the area was arrested by the police some time back with 300 bottles of substandard liquor. However, he managed to get the case quashed during by trial taking advantage of legal flaws.
"I have also issued a warning that any police official found guilty of patronizing bootleggers will not be tolerated in the department," he added. Admitting role of some of the excise department officials in the racket, excise director Javed Iqbal said he had taken action against two inspectors in this regard.
It was decided at the meeting that a strict monitoring of homeopathy stores in the area be maintained, particularly against those who had licence to manufacture alcohol as medicine.
It may be added that 36 people had died in the Multan and Muzaffargarh district during the last four days after consuming tainted liquor, which was reportedly brewed illegally at various facilities in the area.
Seven different police stations in Multan have registered nine cases against alleged bootlegger Israr Sherazi and his three accomplices under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act (1997).
Although the bootlegger and his nominated accomplices have yet to be arrested, three persons have been rounded up so far for being distributors of the liquor that Israr illegally prepared at his factory in the Multan Industrial Estate.