Illegal alcohol continues to cause deaths

Pakistan's human rights activists have criticised the government for what they call its disregard for public health after 42 people died after drinking poisonous home-made alcohol in the eastern city of Multan in Punjab province. Consumption of liquor by Muslims is banned in Pakistan under the country's prohibition laws dating back to the 1970s. Officially two breweries operate in the country to serve non-Muslim communities, who form just 3 percent of the 150-million-member Muslim state. But potent home-made liquors are manufactured illegally in several parts of the country in often unhygienic conditions and using dangerous ingredients. Social workers say that police are bribed to ignore the trade. "With no quality control, the distillers add all sorts of chemicals and odd ingredients to increase the drink's strength," Khaled Hussain, a social worker, told IRIN. Most of the victims were poor. "The social level of the victims has been a factor in the lack of attention these incidents have received in relation to the dimensions of the problem," said Hussain. "These people died not from drinking alcohol but from drinking adulterated alcohol that was sold with impunity. The government is to blame for the deaths." Contaminated liquor last year claimed 40 lives in Multan. Cheap home-made brew is mixed with methyl alcohol. "In too large a dose it can cause blindness or death," Niaz Baluch, a forensic medicine expert, told IRIN. "Bakers' yeast and tablets of diazepam were also mixed with the hooch to increase its potency. Its over-fermentation in hot weather also made the brew poisonous," he said. Illicit distillates can contain impurities which pose cumulative, long-term, risks to health and doctors have warned that anyone who consumed 30 millilitres of the toxic liquor could take up to 12 days to fall ill. Others, who drank less, still risked losing their eyesight. "Those who survive are likely to go blind or suffer kidney damage," the head of Nishtar hospital in Multan, Dr Imran Rafiq, told IRIN. He said the patients lost their eyesight. "The colour of their livers, spleens, bellies and intestines also changed due to the poisonous liquor." Doctors say most people died of respiratory paralysis. "The liver keeps on absorbing toxicity but once it reaches saturation, it causes depression in the respiratory centre in the brain and leaves it dysfunctional," Arif Rahim, a doctor in the emergency ward of Nishtar hospital, told IRIN. Multan District Bar Human Rights Committee President Waseem Mumtaz told journalists that the deaths were "targeted". "The distillers, suppliers, dealers and vendors of the poisonous liquor should be tried under the Antiterrorism Act and the affected families compensated," he said. The Multan chapter of the Pakistani rights watchdog, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), has demanded a judicial probe into the deaths. The rights body's joint director in the Punjabi provincial capital, Lahore, Kamila Hyat, told IRIN that, at the humanitarian level, the death of the victims was tragic. "It stems from a broader lack of concern by authorities about the welfare and safety of citizens. This is manifested in the poor control over consumer items sold, including food and beverages, the failure to check the manufacture of sub-standard or harmful edible items and medication." Multan police chief Hamid Mukhtar Gondal told IRIN they had launched an "organised operation" against the distillers, distributors and bootleggers. Four people have been arrested. They face a number of charges including murder, attempted murder and the illegal sale of liquor, he said.