Shezan Mango: Conflict Between Faith & Business

Tehreem Azeem

Lahore: For many Pakistanis, the taste of a cold bottle of mango nectar is inseparable from childhood summers, family gatherings and school days. Among the brands that became part of those memories, Shezan’s mango drink occupies a particularly familiar place.

Today, however, finding that familiar bottle can be surprisingly difficult in many parts of the country.

Once a routine sight at neighbourhood shops and grocery stores, Shezan products have gradually disappeared from shelves in some areas. The reasons behind the decline in availability are closely linked to decades of controversy surrounding the company and allegations about its association with the Ahmadiyya community.

Shezan International Limited has denied being owned or controlled by the community and says the company is now a public limited corporation with a diverse shareholder base. Yet the controversy surrounding its alleged religious links has repeatedly placed the brand at the centre of calls for boycotts.

For consumers who grew up with the drink, the debate is not simply about a beverage. It is also about memories of a product that once seemed to be everywhere.

A Taste of Childhood

Faraz Zafar, a 52-year-old Lahore resident, remembers Shezan products as a constant presence during his childhood.

He says he has enjoyed the company’s products since the 1970s, particularly its mango drink sold in glass bottles. Over the years, he recalls seeing competing brands attempt to capture the same market, but believes Shezan’s mango flavour remained distinctive.

For Veekay, a 45-year-old Hyderabad resident who uses only his social media handle, the experience is different. He says the brand has become increasingly difficult to find in local markets.

Yet the religious controversy has not changed his personal association with the drink.

“The animosity directed at a beverage or its proprietors holds no sway over me,” he says, describing the brand as his first “connection with taste.”

What remains strongest for him is the flavour.

“I still remember its taste—that rich mango flavour, unmatchable,” he says.

Muhammad Zain, 25, from Lahore, also associates Shezan mango drink with childhood. He says his parents preferred it because they considered it a better option than fizzy soft drinks.

“Whenever I think of mango products, this drink comes to mind,” he says.

His school later replaced Shezan with another brand, Benz. Although the replacement looked similar, he says the taste failed to match the drink he had grown accustomed to.

When a Brand Becomes a Debate

The story of Shezan, however, extends beyond consumer preference.

The company has faced boycotts and opposition for years because of claims regarding its founder’s religious background. The controversy has at times resulted in institutions and businesses refusing to stock its products.

In February 2012, the Lahore Bar Association imposed a ban on Shezan beverages in subordinate court complexes, although the restriction was later overturned following public appeals.

Shezan products have also faced restrictions at the University of the Punjab, where student opposition has reportedly affected their sale.

The company has also been targeted by boycott campaigns in publications and on social media.

A video circulating on social media in late July showed men throwing away bottles of Shezan mango drink. Rather than ending the conversation, the footage prompted a different reaction online, with many users recalling the role the drink had played in their childhoods.

The episode illustrated an unusual contradiction: a product at the centre of a religious controversy could simultaneously remain an object of affection and nostalgia for consumers who associate it with ordinary moments of family life.

A Larger Story of Discrimination

The controversy surrounding Shezan exists within a much broader and more serious context.

The Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan has faced constitutional and legal restrictions as well as incidents of discrimination, violence and attacks on places of worship and cemeteries.

Rights groups and media reports have documented attacks against members of the community over the years, including vandalism of places of worship and violence against individuals.

In July 2023, minarets at an Ahmadi place of worship in Jhelum were demolished amid pressure from religious groups. An Ahmadi place of worship in Karachi was also vandalised that month.

Other reported incidents include the killing of Tahira Malik, a retired assistant professor at Punjab University, in 2017 and the killing of an Ahmadi doctor in Nankana Sahib in 2020.

Such incidents demonstrate that the controversy surrounding Shezan is part of a wider debate over religious discrimination, rather than simply a dispute over consumer products.

Shezan’s Position

A spokesperson for Shezan International Limited said the company does not want its products drawn into theological disputes.

According to the spokesperson, the company was established in 1965 by Chaudhary Shahnawaz, whose religious background later became the basis for campaigns against the brand.

“As its popularity grew, its competitors launched a concerted campaign of hostility against it,” the spokesperson claimed, arguing that the founder’s religious background was used to portray purchasing Shezan products as support for Ahmadiyya beliefs.

The spokesperson stressed that the founding family no longer owns the company and said more than 80 per cent of its shareholders are not members of the community.

He also rejected claims that company revenues are used to support the Ahmadiyya community, saying Shezan operates as a public limited corporation subject to internal and external audits.

The company’s sales teams, he said, approach shopkeepers who decline to stock its products and explain the company’s ownership structure and financial arrangements.

Beyond the Bottle

The debate over Shezan raises a broader question: what happens when ordinary consumer choices become entangled with religious identity?

For some Pakistanis, the brand represents nothing more than a familiar taste from childhood. For others, it has become a symbol in a much wider religious and political controversy.

Haadiah Yasir, a teacher at the Lahore School of Economics, believes businesses can respond to religious prejudice by strengthening diversity and inclusion within their organisations.

She recommends clear anti-discrimination policies, diversity in hiring, sensitivity training, confidential reporting mechanisms and swift action against complaints.

She also believes the government has a role in ensuring that businesses can operate without facing discrimination or instability.

A stronger legal framework, protection of property and contractual rights, clear regulations and political stability, she argues, are essential for creating a safer environment for businesses.

For consumers like Veekay and Zain, however, the issue remains deeply personal in a different way. What they remember is not the controversy but the taste—a cold mango drink on a summer day, a family gathering or a school memory.

And perhaps that is what makes Shezan’s story unusual.

It is no longer simply the story of a beverage. It is a story about how a familiar taste can survive in people’s memories even when the product itself becomes harder to find—and how food, identity, prejudice and nostalgia can become unexpectedly intertwined.