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| Removal of lacunas in Anti-Smoking Ordinance urged |
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Monday, November 02, 2009
Muhammad Qasim
Islamabad
Health experts believe that consumption of tobacco in Pakistan is becoming more and more alarming because its incidence is increasing among youth of Pakistan especially in schools, colleges and universities.
According to an estimate, Pakistanis smoke away Rs50 billion annually. Around 100,000 persons die every year in Pakistan due to diseases related to tobacco use. There are over 30 million smokers in Pakistan of which 37% are male while 9% female and about 1,200 youngsters take up smoking every day. Tobacco is the cause of at least 85% cases of lung cancer, cancer of mouth, throat, kidney, bladder and stroke, besides chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Health experts say that Pakistan needs to reduce tobacco use to control non-communicable diseases and achieve the related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that can only be done by removing lacunas in current Anti-Smoking Ordinance because legislation and its implementation in true letter and spirit is the key to effective tobacco control.
“Markets like Pakistan are fair grounds for tobacco sales of big tobacco companies because of huge young and illiterate population, loose price controls, permission of sale of open or small packs of cigarettes, ignorance about toxic constituents and emissions of cigarettes and diverse health impacts; last but not the least due to lacunas in ‘Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002’,” said Head of Community Medicine at Islamabad Medical & Dental College Professor Dr Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry while talking to ‘The News’ on lacunas in the ordinance.
According to section 5 of the Ordinance, smoking is ban in public places including hospitals, dispensaries and other healthcare establishments, educational institutions, offices, conference rooms, all domestic flights, restaurants, buses, wagons, trains, indoor stadiums, gymnasiums, waiting rooms at bus stations, railway stations and air ports etc but there has been no enforcement of this section so far and not a single person has been fined, said Dr Ashraf. He added that smoking is still rampant in public places including restaurants.
He said that according to Section 6 of the Ordinance, there is ban on smoking in public transport. A fine of one thousand rupees has been set as a penalty for the first time offender, while in the case of second or subsequent offender; it may go up to Rs100,000 and imprisonment up to three months. The method of implementation of the Ordinance 2002 is extremely tedious and cumbersome. No police officer or magistrate can take action on his own. For this a written report by an authorised officer or a police sub-inspector is required for law to come into action, he said.
According to Section 9 of the Ordinance, no one is allowed to store, sell, or distribute cigarettes within an area of 50 meters from a school, college or educational institution which is cognisable and bail able offence. “A court can take action on the written complaint of a police officer of the rank of sub-inspector or above. The law is rarely respected and not a single complaint has been moved by a police officer,” said Dr Ashraf and added that there is a need to amend this section and empower the principal/head masters of educational institutions to launch a complaint directly to the magistrate.
According to Section 8 of the Ordinance, no person can sell cigarettes or any other smoking substance to any one who is below the age of eighteen years, but only a police officer of the rank of sub-inspector can report to the court of the magistrate.
When asked, Dr Ashraf said that both sale by and to the minors is extremely rampant in the country and perhaps could not be controlled until the point of sales are licensed and such licences could be revoked in case of violation of the law.
He said that according to Section 7 of the Ordinance, although tobacco advertisement is ban on electronic and print media, but tobacco companies have found new ways to go around the partial restriction on tobacco advertisement. “Person to person sale techniques are being used, huge billboards have been installed on prominent places and markets and highways all over the country, catchy poster are pasted in large numbers and points of sale advertisements have increased manifold. Smoking by actors in television dramas and films is also rampant. Amendment in the law is required for comprehensive ban on tobacco advertisement.”
He said that there is a dire need for necessary amendments in the law that would enable the police to spontaneously issue tickets on the spot to violators of the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002. “Moreover, District Health Officers, Food Inspectors, Drug Inspectors of health department must also be empowered to fine on the spot.”
To a query, he said that along with legal approach, public education programmes should also be run by Ministry of Health in collaboration with Education Ministry in educational institutions and should also try to get information about the harms of tobacco included in the syllabus. Large scale public education campaign is required to make public aware of the salient features of the Anti-Smoking Ordinance 2002, he said.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
