Banned at home, Pakistan brewery seizes Hollywood moment
By Randy Fabi
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan | Thu Nov 15, 2012 4:17pm EST
(Reuters) – What have Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, underage drinking and Pakistan’s only beer maker got in common?
It was the arrest of the Hollywood stars’ daughter in New York with a can of Murree Brewery’s beer last June that propelled the company out of obscurity and into the spotlight.
Inundated with emails asking about its beer, Murree Brewery seized on the free publicity to launch expansion plans outside the Muslim nation, where alcohol is banned and those that do drink can become targets of Taliban militants and other Islamist fundamentalists.
Five months since the arrest, the 150-year-old company says it has lined up distributors that could see its flagship beer arrive on liquor store shelves in the United States and Dubai as early as the first quarter of next year.
“Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’ daughter gave us multi-million dollars worth of publicity by default. We plan to go to the United States and make a queue to hug both the daughter and the mother,” Sabih ur Rehman, special assistant to the chief executive, joked with Reuters.
Categories: Americas, Awareness, Behaviour, Double Standard, Global Trade, United States
Just wondering, who owns Murree Brewery? Muslims or Christians? If Christians there is nothing wrong in it.
I also know lots of Ahmadis in Denmark and around the world who claim to be pious yet drink and xxx all he time. Does it mean that Ahmadiyat is false or not pure?
All companies do business to survive and make money. What does Murree Brewery has to do with Pakistan being a land of pure or not?
It seems that Muslim Times relishes in demeaning Pakistan and every thing in Pakistan. Sad journalism.
The Muslim Times has readers and commentators and editors from all over the world, not all of them of Pakistani origin. And some who are of Pakistani origin do have many bad experiences and memories. But still, commentators and editors, please do take Mr. Quraishy’s views seriously. We do not want to be known as an anti-Pakistani blog.
Thanks Rafiq and Mr. Quraishy. I am not sure how this demeans Pakistan. I do not think that the concept of Pakistan is so fragile as to be demeaned by this simple matter of fact. How does stating a fact make something anti Pakistan? I agree may be the catching headline may make some tempers flare (not intended of course) but yes we love Pakistan with all its contradictions and it is contradictions about our beloved homeland that grab us sometimes.
Mr. Quraishi proves my point, just as conduct of few ahmadies does not mean Ahmadiyyat is false, similarly manfuacturing beer in Pakistan does not make it impure. Nothing more nothing less. It upto Mr. Quraishi to derive more meanings out of this as he wants. Just out of curiosity does he really believe Pakistan is the land of the Pure?