October 31, 2002	Thursday	Sha’aban 24,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: A civil society organization has asked the government to impose a ban on all kinds of tobacco advertisements.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Eshan Latif of the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) said: “We should be on guard against the role played by the tobacco industry in the guise of its youth and environment programmes.

“These programmes have proved to be a failure as contrary to check smoking they present the cigarettes as an adult commodity thus enticing the children more into smoking,” Dr Latif said.

He said the recently promulgated tobacco ordinance required that all the advertisements should be cleared by a committee. The cigarettes packs should have photographs to inform the people about the hazards of smoking while those running campaign against smoking should also be made part of that committee, he added.

Dr Latif quoted a TFI study which showed that in Pakistan, about 16 per cent children (under the age of 17 years) were habitual smokers. Fifty two per cent of juvenile smokers were studying in colleges while 48 per cent of them still attended school.

He said about 91.8 per cent of the juvenile smokers were aware of different hazards of smoking. About 78 per cent of these juvenile smokers had tried to give up smoking but could not do so, he added.

Globally, the tobacco consumption has risen from four million per year to 4.9 million per year during the past decade.

He remarked that 10 to 14 per cent people in Pakistan die of smoking every year and added that the tobacco-related deaths continue to rise in the developing world. There should be regulations to govern the consumption tobacco products, he added.

He said the most important development in this regard was the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) taking place under the auspices of WHO in Geneva.

“We have always maintained that the official Pakistan delegation sent to the negotiations should take into account the suggestions put forward by the civil society and put the public health of their citizen’s first,” said Kaneez Zehra of the TFI- Pakistan.

Issues discussed include advertising, packaging and labelling of tobacco products, cigarette smuggling and the relationship between tobacco and international trade rules. According to reports, the Pakistan delegation was not supportive of the issues and its favouring of the negative position of the US was seen as an “obstruction” by many countries.

The non-governmental organization also showed their concern Šabout the presence of the tobacco industry at these negotiations as it was viewed to be detrimental to a favourable outcome of the treaty in terms of public health.

The final text of the FCTC will be presented to 192 nations of the world for ratification in the World Health Assembly in May 2003 as a first public health treaty, four years after an adoption of a resolution in the same forum.