Pakistan's Mangoes of Wrath

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In 2010, unidentified attackers stormed the Ahmadi-owned factory of Shezan International Ltd., in Lahore—four people were injured and portions of the factory were left in ruins.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Roads And Kingdoms
By Sonya Rehman | May 13, 2013

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad began the Ahmadiyya faith when he declared himself a prophet in 1889, in his hometown of Qadian in India. This runs counter to Muslim belief that Mohammed was the last of the prophets, but the Ahmadis, thinking themselves Muslim, left Qadian for Pakistan after partition. And they have been marginalized ever since, the targets of threats, violent attacks and systematic persecution, all supported by the Pakistani government. After the mosque killings in 2010, Human Rights Watch called on the government to institute laws protecting the Ahmadi community, but judging by the banning of the Shezan mango drink and the contentious elections this year, life only grows harder for the Ahmadis.

Despite the discrimination, Ahmadis have had a huge impact on Pakistan society. The Ahmadi Dr. Abdus Salam received a Nobel Prize in Physics for predicting the ‘God Particle’, the first Pakistani to be awarded the honor. And yet even his memory has been desecrated: his grave in the Ahmadi stronghold of Rabwah, in Punjab, had the word ‘Muslim’ removed from the epitaph that originally read, “The First Muslim Nobel Laureate.”

Another Ahmadi made a huge mark on Pakistan, but in a totally different arena—the culinary world. A businessman and restaurateur, Chaudhry Shahnawaz launched Shezan Continental restaurants across Pakistan in 1954, a chain so popular that it eventually expanded to London (Knightsbridge), New York (5th Avenue), Washington DC and Toronto.

Customers, however, would only see Ahmadis, officially heretics, when they thought of the restaurant.

“At the time you saw the most senior members of the judiciary and the government, heads of state (on occasion) and other foreign dignitaries visiting Shezan,” says Muhammad Hussain Chaudhry, who recently retired from his job as Senior Manager after more than 50 years with the company. “The restaurant set the bar high for fine dining in Pakistan,” he said, “The food was wonderful, what can I say? Business was booming.”

That business suffered a big setback in 1974 when the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, buckled under pressure from Islamic religious leaders and declared the Ahmadi community in Pakistan as non-Muslims. “Shahnawaz was very disheartened. He was a great man, he had great leadership skills,” said Muhammad Hussain about those fearful days, “He kept the staff very happy. He would educate them about their rights as employees. They all really admired him and to this day still remember him.”

Customers, however, would only see Ahmadis, officially heretics, when they thought of the restaurant. So Shahnawaz had to sell the restaurants and bakeries to a non-Ahmadi named Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal. The Shahnawaz family still retains the other side of the business, the one that sells sauces, jams, vinegar, pickles, squash, and yes, that delicious pulpy mango juice.

Multiculturalism, quality, and above all grace: the lost qualities of Shezan.

The shared name has created confusion amongst Pakistanis and trouble for the Chaudhry family. One of the three remaining restaurants was burnt down by Muslim hardliners following the Danish cartoon controversy in 2006. Another employee at Shezan restaurants, who didn’t want his name used, says that threatening pamphlets are still sent to the company on a weekly basis. In 2010, unidentified attackers stormed the Ahmadi-owned factory of Shezan International Ltd., in Lahore—four people were injured and portions of the factory were left in ruins.

Muhammad Hussain told me that Shezan restaurants used to send their waiters to Karachi to a sort of hospitality finishing school before starting a full-time position. This training, created a hospitality service that was uniquely Shezan, where each waiter carried a distinctive grace and decency. The restaurants also had a sort of globalized air about them, serving continental, Pakistani and Chinese dishes all on one menu, unlike the other restaurants of the time, which only ever served one cuisine. Multiculturalism, quality, and above all grace: if only those Shezan values could be bottled and served, chilled, to all Pakistanis in this most frenetic hour. [more]


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Sonya Rehman is a writer and journalist based in Lahore, Pakistan, where she covers art, culture and politics. You can follow her on Twitter at @SonyaRehman.


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