Civil society offers to withdraw court case against Health Ministry

Islamabad

On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, TheNetwork for Consumer Protection Monday offered to withdraw a court case against the Ministry of National Health Services if it enforce its earlier decision of increasing the size of the pictorial health warning to 85% on cigarette packs and making tangible progress for implementation of plain packaging.

TheNetwork made this announcement during a picket in front of the Press Club, where civil society activists, health rights promoters and political workers had assembled. TheNetwork has taken the Ministry of Health to the Islamabad High Court for dwindling on a January 2015 notification to raise the size of pictorial health warning to 85% of the cigarette pack.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief executive of TheNetwork said plain package of cigarettes is the most effective means of tobacco control in Pakistan, where the government spends nothing on preventive health. “If you strip back the decoration, gloss and misleading elements of tobacco packaging, you are left with little more than a box of deadly and addictive products that kills approximately 110,000 people a year in Pakistan and harms the health of many more. Plain packaging helps reveal the grim reality of tobacco products,” he said, taking a cue from WHO.

TheNetwork stressed that Pakistan should implement plain packaging and other tobacco control measures now to save lives and prevent future deaths. Without urgent action, one billion lives will be lost this century.