ISLAMABAD:Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH), General Secretary and Director Operations, Sana Ullah Ghumman Friday said the tobacco industry through various tactics and misleading designs lured 1,200 children daily to adopt smoking across the country.
Addressing a news conference organized by PANAH here, he said, “Children are the future and the tobacco industry is adopting various tactics to push them towards fatal diseases.”
Quoting the study of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), he said the availability of cheap cigarettes in Pakistan was a major cause of smoking among the youth as 60% of smokers start smoking during adolescence.
He added that according to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), the annual consumption of cigarettes in Pakistan was 86.6 billion.
“This is a worrying moment for us. On the other hand, the tobacco industry is misleading the government by claiming a loss of Rs 77 billion on illicit trade of cigarettes.”
“Given the fact that the illicit trade in tobacco in the country is not more than 10 to 15 percent, if the illicit trade had exceeded the limit, any copyright case would have been registered by the tobacco industry by the time of repentance,” he argued, adding, cigarette consumption has increased by 90% in 2017-18 after the implementation of the third tier due to poor strategy.
A recent report by the World Bank declared 30% FED as mandatory every year to reduce tobacco consumption and increase revenue in Pakistan, Ghumman added.
“The annual revenue of Rs. 134 billion will be achieved if the World Bank proposed FED is implemented,” he underlined.
Guest of Honor Director Ministry of National Health Services Dr Samra Mazhar said health of the nation was the basic duty of the government.
“As we are aware, laws are being strengthened to prevent health hazards, children are our future, every propaganda will be exposed to save our children,” she maintained.
Dr Samra Mazhar added that smoking causes environmental pollution, heart diseases, diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases.
“We need to start individually from ourselves by educating the masses at the grass roots level,” she added.
She suggested that it was better to create public awareness and engage the youth in games and sports promotion that would help reduce tobacco use.
“We are now working aggressively to impose health hazard tax in the next budget. The act has been formulated and looked after by SAPM Dr Faisal Sultan and Parliamentary Secretary Dr Nousheen Hamid,” she added.
The expert panelists including Punjab Advisory Committee Chairperson Iram Mumtaz, NDOC Chairperson and former MPA Tehseen Fawad, SPARC’s Khalil Ahmed, Chromatic’s Sharq Khan and others said that smoking was the first step towards drug addiction.
“Children are the capital of any nation and tobacco is a menace damaging our precious asset. The tobacco industry is targeting our children, especially girls whereas increasing revenue will help solve many health problems. We urge the government to implement the Health Levy Bill immediately,” they underscored.