| September 16, 2003 | Tuesday | Rajab 18, 1424 |
Question needs to be changed
NOBODY can deny that smoking, including passive smoking, is injurious to health. According to the World Health Organization, five million people die every year from diseases related to tobacco smoking. So Pakistan too has finally joined the international anti-smoking campaign being vigorously promoted by the WHO. Accordingly, the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-smokers’ Health Ordinance 2002 came into effect on July 1.
Countries like Iran, Turkey and Poland had already passed anti-smoking laws banning smoking at public places as early as in 1996. An anti-smoking law was already in place in New Delhi by 1997 while other places in India like Bangalore did not pass such a law until 2002. Hungary, the world’s heaviest smoking country after Russia and Poland, also banned smoking at public places in 1999, and other countries like Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong also followed the suit. Thailand and Italy implemented anti-smoking laws in 2002.
Amongst the late joiners into the world’s anti-smoking club are Russia (whose parliament passed the law limiting smoking on transport and at public places in January 2003), the United States (which only managed to have all its 50 states pass some anti-smoking legislation by June 2003, with Florida, New York and Alabama being the last few to do so), and the Philippines (whose president signed the anti-smoking law prohibiting smoking at all public places on June 23, 2003).
One country which has yet to pass such a legislation and is, therefore, under pressure to do so is Bangladesh. Some 192 members of the WHO had agreed in May on a milestone international public health treaty called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Under this treaty, all member countries are bound to adopt a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship once they ratify the treaty.
But adopting this treaty and enacting anti-smoking legislation is one thing, enforcing it is another. Needless to say, results depend on how strictly the governments enforce the law.
When Italy enforced the anti-smoking law in early 2002, the Italian police carried out spot checks at public places, including restaurants, issuing hundreds of rupees fines to people caught violating the law. Not only were offenders fined up to $250, but the restaurant owners were also penalized by a $3,000 fine when they failed to enforce the law.
In Davao City in the Philippines, where violators are being fined between 500 to 400,000 pesos and face a month to three years in jail, waiters call the police when guests do not heed the no-smoking law in the restaurants.
At many places, the law has had positive results. In Thailand and South Africa, tobacco consumption is reported to have declined significantly. In Poland, one of the world’s heaviest smokers, a year after the anti-smoking law was enacted, people had already gotten used to not smoking on city and inter- city trains. Even in Bangalore, where the law was only passed a year ago in August 2002, it is reported that smoking has been curbed to a large extent in public conveyance like buses and trains, although success is less evident in taxis and auto- rickshaws, and at other public places like cinemas and restaurants.
One wonders if the ani-smoking law can be similarly enforced here in Pakistan. According to the ordinance, the violators can be fined up to Rs1,000 and repeat offenders can be fined up to 0.1 million. The public places include playgrounds, parks, restaurants, offices, cinemas, hotel lobbies, waiting rooms, libraries, railway stations, bus terminals, stadiums, educational institutions and public sites, where “no smoking” signs will be put up. Under Section 12 of the ordinance, any competent officer or police officer above the rank of sub- inspector can force people off public property if they violate the ban. But since the ordinance came into effect on July 1, there does not seem to be any report about anyone being caught and indicted under the new law.
Enforcement of laws in general has never been a forte of our law-enforcement authorities. The no-smoking rule on board the international flights of our national flag carrier has often been violated by defiant passengers, who insist on smoking in the non- smoking section. There also exist plenty of rules and laws about encroachments, adulteration of food and medicines, traffic behaviour, etc. But, enforcement of these has largely been whimsical and violations have been going on with impunity, with the law-enforcers mainly keeping one eye closed.
Besides, the reputation of our judicial process (or the lack of it) would make any “authorized officer” think twice about whether it is any use lodging a complaint about a smoking violation. According to one no-smoking poster put up in Islamabad, all “authorized officers” can lodge complaints of violations in a magistrate’s court. It is a different matter altogether whether any “authorized officer” will be bothered to do so.
Moreover, some smokers here, as in some other countries, are likely to consider the new law as an invasion of their personal right to make informed choices about their behaviour, and may resist any attempt to make them put out their smoke. After the anti-smoking law came into effect in New York this year, a man working in a restaurant was stabbed to death when he tried to get a customer to put out his cigarette.
Given our country’s dismal record in enforcing laws, what is also needed in addition to an anti-smoking law to effectively discourage smoking and reduce the number of smokers is an intensive and sustained nation-wide anti-smoking campaign over the print and electronic media, and in schools and offices, to educate and inform the public about the hazards of smoking.
But in implementing and enforcing the anti-smoking law, we should not forget that there are other serious problems affecting the health of the general population, which also need attention. Amongst these are the lack of potable water and proper sanitation in many areas, including even in Islamabad itself, where instances of diseases like hepatitis and typhoid are being reported. The country’s statistics on maternal and infant mortality rates is also evidence of the fact that the lack of maternal health care here may be as serious a problem as that supposedly caused by tobacco smoking.
Finally, we should also be looking into other serious health problems affecting our country, which are not being taken on directly by the WHO. One of these is betel-nut chewing, which according to the WHO and local studies, is addictive and linked to serious diseases, including mouth and throat cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
THE president’s address to the nation is taken up by Kawish, which says General Musharraf has not provided the nation with the option to express a view against the proposed dams and instead insisted that the Kalabagh, Bhasha, Skardu and Akori dams must be built.
Due to the reservations of the provinces, the paper argues, the projects have become so disputed that the decision to go ahead with them should not have been made public in such a way. The president should have asked the nation whether the dams should be built instead of asking which one should be built first.
It recalls that during his Sindh visit, the president had announced the setting up of a technical committee to be headed by A. G. N. Abbasi to remove Sindh’s apprehensions on the dam issue. As yet neither a notification for the constitution of the committee has been issued nor have its terms of reference been determined.
The daily says that the president’s address suggests that he has forgotten the committee. Instead he is advocating the dam cause on the basis of facts and figures presented by Wapda which is increasing the apprehensions of Sindh.
President Musharraf also asked the opponents of the dams to propose alternatives. Kawish writes that on an average the Indus has a yearly flow of 105 million acre feet out of which only 60 MAF reaches farmlands and in the process 45 MAF is wasted. The main reason is said to be the dilapidated condition of the irrigation system. If Rs10 billion, the estimated cost of the Kalabagh Dam, which would have a storage capacity of only six MAF, are spent on repair and renovation of the irrigation system, more than half of the 45 MAF water can be saved.
Sindhu writes on the issue of the National Finance Commission Award pointing out that the Sindh government believes it has not been getting a judicious share for the last nine years. The financial condition of the province has worsened and the worst sufferer is its social sector, particularly education.
The daily urges the federal government to listen to Sindh’s complaints and provide it with a greater tax revenue.
Tameer-i-Sindh deplores government apathy towards the dispute between the management of the Mari gas field and the residents of Kharohi village on whose land gas wells are being dug. The daily says that the standoff has entered its second month and recently women and child protesters were injured by police. It urges the Sindh government to bind the gas field management to accept the demands of the protesters, including land compensation according to the market rate, jobs for local people and construction of school and road in the area.
Sach says that the Overseas Trading Corporation, with the help of the administration and security staff, has tried to bulldoze Wasand Khan Kalmati Village, near Port Qasim, which has met resistance from the villagers.
The OTC says that the land on which the village is situated has been sold to it by the Port Qasim Authority but the villagers reply that they do not recognize the PQA’s claim on the land on which their families have been living for the last five years. The Sindh government is asked to intervene and save the villagers from being displaced.