Spotlight: ‘Drinking’ and ‘getting drunk’ – the ‘fine’ distinction!

It looked a simple enough matter, separating the bad eggs from good ones or at least those with nothing against them on record.

With evidence galore available (though not in a readily usable form and requiring legal and administrative processing for providing a firm basis for taking action) against hundreds of our ex-parliamentarians who for five full years enjoyed unheard of perks both legitimate and mainly otherwise, indulged in wrongdoing in respect of fake graduation degrees, false oaths about dual nationality, diversion of funds to pile illegal personal fortunes, tax evasion, involvement in criminal cases in courts of law, it looked simple enough we repeat, to keep the bad eggs out of the election race 2013. But the delay – partly inherent and partly deliberate and engineered – in processing these cases persuaded the ROs to rely on the rough and ready provisions of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution on which to base their decisions about clearing the candidatures.

ECP in unholy mess

But thanks to months’ long dilly dallying by the Election Commission and its initial loss of direction and purpose, no briefing had been given to the ROs to ensure that they were all on the same page with themselves and with the intent of the Constitution. The result was that some bizarre questions were asked and these provided grist for the mill for those (a very small but vocal minority) ever ready to wiggle out of the fact that the Raison d’être (reason for the very existence) of Pakistan was the creation of a State whose governance was in line with the injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah. Behind the veil of opposing some of RO’s bizarre questioning, they have unleashed a full-scale onslaught against Islamic values themselves.

An interesting “disqualification”

An interesting “disqualification” and punishment by a RO (later overturned by a Court of Law) was that of Ayaz Amir, a politician and a regular contributor of Columns in print Media whose writings are witty and highly readable but many of the barbs in his wit are aimed at values which most Pakistanis hold dear. He claimed that the RO had disqualified him because he thought that his writings were against the ideology of Islam whereas according to the RO the reason was related to alcohol consumption. Amir wrote a column which was published in a national newspaper on 30th November, 2012 in which he eulogised the person and personality of Ardsher Cowasjee, a prominent personality of Karachi, who had passed away a week earlier. A relevant part of the Column reads:

What Ayaz wrote in print!

In the summer of 1995 I was to take up a Reuter’s fellowship at Green College, Oxford, thanks to my friend Dr Humayun Khan who was then head of the Commonwealth Institute in London. From the Cowasjee Foundation I got a cheque for 500 pounds “with which to buy books…”, as I was sternly told. Some of that money, I regret to say, found its way into the pubs of Oxford. But with the remainder I bought some handsome old editions, which I open now and then and think of those bygone times”. A saving grace of sorts in this episode is that it occurred way back in 1995. May be Mr Amir’s views have undergone a change since.

“Drinking” and “getting drunk”!

An interesting piece of writing Quoting Dr Javed Iqbal son of our great poet has come to the rescue of those who cannot resist a sip of the forbidden liquid now and then. He is quoted as claiming in an interview that “drinking is not prohibited, getting drunk is”. I am not an Islamic Scholar but one need not be one to hold the view that certain red lines very unambiguously drawn in Quran and Sunnah may not be crossed, whatever one, however exalted, may say. Drinking alcoholic drinks (whether or not to the extent of getting drunk) is one such red line.

Some history

The fact of the matter is that drinking was very common in Arabia at the time of the last Prophet (PBUH). Its ban under the evolving Islamic law was a gradual process. The first order in the Quran in this connection said drinking and gambling were sinful despite there being some profit in them (Surat Al Baqarah verse 219) but a prohibition order was not given at this point. Many Muslims (all recent converts) got the hint and gave up drinking. Later Muslims were asked to avoid going for prayers when they, under the influence of liquor, knew not what they were saying (ie when not in their full senses: see Surat An Nissa verse 43). More Muslims gave up drinking. However despite yet another strongly negative overtone there was again at that point no clear injunction against drinking per se. The final order in this connection came yet later and prohibited drinking without any ifs and buts (see Surat Al Ma Ida verses 90-91). Wine flew like water after heavy rains on the streets of Madinah as Muslims in their entirety destroyed all alcohol in their possession vowing never to touch liquor again. Dr Javed Iqbal’s quote may have referred to some intermediate stage in the above process and may have been misunderstood. (Please refer to the text of verses identified for their full sense).

Unique achievement

This was the only time in known history that a society in which drinking was the norm gave up the practice voluntarily and so completely that the length and breadth of the country became liquor-free. This compares with an unprecedented effort by the American Government to abolish sale, production, and transportation of alcohol in the country in 1920 mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The campaign which lasted from 1920 to 1933 and cost the country billions in terms of money and administrative action was abandoned after its spectacular failure. Illicit production of liquor by individuals and criminal gangs became so rampant that the ban had to be lifted with the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933. Americans have resumed merrily drinking ever since and the latest State Department of Justice report on Alcohol and Crime found that alcohol abuse was a factor in 40 percent of violent crimes (3 million cases in all each year) committed in the US Incidentally Joseph Kennedy the head of the famous Kennedy family of America and father of President John Kennedy is reputed to have made his fortune during the ban by dealing in illicit liquor! (owajid@yahoo.com)