Blocking tobacco control

Control on tobacco smoking is a major preventive health issue in our country as it is a major cause of fatal diseases such as cancer and heart and lung ailments, but the federal government is dragging its feet in enforcing preventive measures including mandatory enhancement in the size of graphic health warning on cigarette packets.
The statistics speak for themselves. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistanis smoked 64.4 billion sticks of cigarette in 2013-14. The Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2012-13) revealed that the country’s 28 percent adult men (age 15-49) smoke cigarettes and 22 percent use other types of tobacco.
In view of tobacco smoking’s hazards, the international community placed certain restrictions on the sale of tobacco and its advertisement through a Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) which Pakistan signed in 2004 and ratified in 2005. The Sustainable Development Goals (3-A) recently adopted by the United Nations include implementation of the FCTC.
Under the FCTC, by early 2015, Pakistan was to enforce plain packaging of cigarette packets, sans any graphics and with a small-sized brand name, carrying a bold health warning about the harm caused by tobacco smoking. In February this year, the deadline expired but the state failed to keep up its pledge.
Keeping in view the tremendous benefits of making cigarettes less attractive, Australia has already adopted plain packing as was sought by the FCTC. In Nepal, pictorial health warning covers 90 percent of the size of the cigarette packet. In India, notification has been issued for 85 percent size of the warning starting from April 2016.
In Pakistan, cigarette packets bear a health warning covering 40 percent of the packet’s size. In January 2015, instead of enforcing plain packaging as per the FCTC, the government issued a notification saying that all cigarette packets would carry a pictorial health warning 85 percent of the size of the packet on both sides within two months and the companies would remove old packets from the market during the period. However, this order too was deferred.
There are certain influential bureaucrats in Islamabad who are helping the tobacco lobby. In a recent joint meeting in Islamabad organised by the Finance Ministry and Ministry of health Services and Regulations, a senior officer prevailed on the committee to implement the decision of 85 percent-warning in stages over a five-year time period.
Tobacco manufacturers wield influence via the Rs80 billion they pay in sales tax and federal excise duty. They started exerting pressure on the government to withdraw the notification for a larger health warning on cigarette packs.
Tobacco companies argued that this measure would lead to reduction in the sale of tobacco and consequently diminished taxes. It is estimated that the government will lose revenue by Rs20 billion a year.
In March this year, UK High Commissioner to Pakistan Philip Barton attended an official meeting in Islamabad at which British American Tobacco, the parent company of the Pakistan Tobacco Company, lobbied Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Minister of State for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarrar.
Pressure from cigarette manufacturers resulted in delaying the implementation of a larger warning on cigarette packets. Since then, the government has extended the deadline of larger pictorial warning several times, the latest being October 31.
Enhanced pictorial health warning will lead to a drop in the sales of cigarettes, which is the purpose of the move, but the government must not lose sight of the fact that loss of revenue to the government will be more than compensated through savings in curative health expenditures made on diseases caused by smoking.
Furthermore, with a larger warning on locally-manufactured cigarette packets, it will become easier for law-enforcement agencies to distinguish between smuggled and local cigarettes. In 2014, around two billion cigarette sticks were smuggled into Pakistan largely from Afghanistan, according to a study conducted by Nielsen.
Almost half of this country’s population comprises young people up to the age of 22 years who constitute the most vulnerable group in terms of smoking tobacco. Studies suggest that 1,200 children in our country initiate smoking daily. If a person starts smoking from a young age, it gets difficult for them to quit the habit. It is necessary to make smoking less attractive to young population. Plain packaging and enhanced pictorial warnings on cigarette packets are meant for this purpose.
The state must not sacrifice tremendous long-term benefits from tobacco control for the sake of short-term revenue concerns. According to independent studies, as many as 110,000 people die annually in our country from tobacco-related diseases.
Those who are blocking implementation of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control are doing a great disservice to the people of this country. The state must fulfil its international commitments for the sake of its own people’s good health.
Email: adnanadilzaidi@gmail.com