Social Media websites are awash with an image of a bottle of liquor named after Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The bottle of gin is named ‘Ginnah’. The eponymous alcoholic beverage bottle also carries a small introduction about Muhammad Ali Jinnah, along with a description of how the country has been reduced to a “troubled place” due to the totalitarian instincts of a “military dictator” that reigned the country with the help of the United States.
Message on the gin bottle hails Jinnah as pork-eating, whisky-swilling epicure
The message reads, “Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the founder of Pakistan that came into being in 1947 as a secular state. Decades later, the country was pushed over the cliff by a military dictator, aided by supporters in Washington D.C., converted into a troubled place where he and some of the religious clergy pursued their sinister designs.”
The reference made to the military dictator in the message printed on the label of the bottle is none other than Pakistani General Muhammed Zia-ul-Haq, who overthrew the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977. It is also widely believed that Zia-ul-Haq presided over the Islamisation of Pakistan, establishing an Islamic state and enforcing the rule of Islamic Sharia. It is pertinent to note that alcohol was freely available in Pakistan until 1977 when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, before he was deposed by Zia-ul-Haq, placed a ban over it to appease Islamic clergies.
The message further added that Jinnah would have never allowed Pakistan to degenerate into a religious regime, given that he himself enjoyed playing billiard, smoking cigars, munching pork sausages and swilling fine scotch, whiskey and gin. All the above-mentioned activities are considered as taboo in Islam.
The bottom of the label states it as “In the memory of the man of pleasure who he was: Ginnah”.
Social media users’ reaction to gin bottle named after M.A Jinnah
Though the authenticity of the picture was not confirmed, several Twitter users, nevertheless, started sharing picture that had already gone viral on the social media websites.
One of the Twitter users said, “Damn! We have gin named after our founding father.”
Damn! We have gin named after our founding father. #Jinnah #Ginnah pic.twitter.com/gMmLDwjCwX
— Blitzkrieg (@OmerSolehri) November 30, 2020
Pakistani journalist and popular social-media user Naila Inayat even took a dig at Pakistan’s founder, jocularly wondering if the bottle of gin represented an upgraded Jinnah.
An upgraded Jinnah? pic.twitter.com/jyrprScye7
— Naila Inayat नायला इनायत (@nailainayat) December 2, 2020
Another Twitter user commented that Ginnah should be made the national drink of Pakistan.
Needs to be made the national drink 😅 #Ginnah https://t.co/asJZpBVGHK
— Elie Gohar Durrani (@khaneliegohar) December 1, 2020
