thumbs up for you. i read that article and i was amazed that people do not feel any shame in such immoral behaviours

@Awais: I would agree with you if you didn't use the word immoral. Who are you or anyone else for that matter to tell someone if they are being moral or immoral. In plain words, it is dangerous to the health of the person smoking and more importantly to the health of people surrounding that person and should remain banned.

Seriously..... sitting a few thousand miles away and reading this makes me laugh--- especially in a country where police needs to be focussing on alot more serious issues as you rightly agree heroin, cocain, smuggling, cheating , fraud,....shisha raids seemed like a joke,

What a youngster does within the confines of designated smoke areas(read smoke caf

Mr. Javed Khan is invited to visit Biryani of the seas ( a restaurant ) adjacent to PSO head office near clifton bridge and witness for himself how shisha is openly served to the customers and very interestingly, the Frere police station is just 20 meters away from the table where this shisha is served.

I was recently in Pakistan and was surprised by the shisha laws. I find it ironic that in a country even children smoke cigarettes (which are far more addictive and harmful to human health), they have banned public smoking of shisha. I agree that shisha smoking is not healthy, but I have to take objection to some of the anti-shisha lobby found in Pakistan, as well as other parts of the world. A recent study suggested smoking shisha continuously for an hour is the equivalent of 100 cigarettes. Lets put that into perspective. 1. Shisha is a social activity, pipes are shared and passed around, nobody continuously smokes for hours on end. Even 5 minutes of continuous smoking can leave you light headed because of the lack of oxygen you intake. 2. Shisha does contain nicotine but usually about 10 times less than that in cigarettes. It is nowhere near as addictive. 3. Shisha does not contain tar, unless the shisha uses the same tobacco as cigarettes. I very occasional smoke shisha, i put it off as much as i can, it's not a healthy activity by any stretch of the imagination. However it is nowhere near as bad as smoking cigarettes. If you can still use them publicly, why not shisha? I think Pakistan should take a leaf out of the Wests book, only allow smoking in designated smoking areas, be they public or private. Shisha in a shisha lounge, created and run specifically for shisha should be permitted, shisha in a restaurant should not. This totalitarian approach taken to everything in Pakistan is worry. Take for example how they've banned Youtube rather than agreeing the kinds of deals China/Iran/KSA have for getting filtered content. The reason is simple, they don't want to invest in the technology to implement such filters on their end, so they decide to just block Youtube. They made the same mistake for decades with Bollywood. Rather than censoring on a film by film basis they had blanket bans, this has lead to massive illegal (yet open) bootleg markets. Meanwhile Pakistani cinemas died a death.

The problem here is the way the raids are being carried out. If shisha smoking is banned then the ones supplying the shisha should first be warned on paper, and then be arrested, with the contraband confiscated. Similarly, a warning for the customers should be sufficient. The harshness of the raiding team is not justified here. As long as no one is being harmed, in the absence of legislation, everyone has a right to smoke within designated smoking areas. It doesnt take a lot of effrt in asking a restaurant whether or not the place serves shisha so you can choose to go to another place if it bothers you.

@Liberal: and you call yourself a "liberal" ? What a joke.

@John Die: If it is law, you have to follow it, whether you like it or not. If you don't like the country's law, you have the freedom to leave.

If we do not frown upon Hukka, smoke billowing buses, trucks & taxis, toxic emissions from our factories, pollutants in our water system, millions of smokers lighting up a smoke in every corner then what is the need of curtailing Shisha, a modified form of Hukka. Easy money for police I suppose nothing else.