ISLAMABAD: The capital administration raided 17 cafes or other outlets in Islamabad and fined them Rs439,000 for serving sheesha (glass hooka) smoking or selling cigarette packs without warning signs from March to October this year.

The information was presented to a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali that had taken up a case regarding tobacco epidemic in Pakistan. The case was initiated by former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on a suo motu in 2006.

In the report submitted by Deputy Attorney General Sohail Mahmood on behalf of the assistant commissioner Islamabad, the apex court was informed that one of the outlets in F-11 Markaz called “The Redex Café” was twice sealed for serving sheesha and fined Rs50,000 and Rs100,000, respectively, on Aug 7 and Aug 16 under the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non Smokers Health Ordinance 2002. Similarly, two restaurants - Roof Top Cafe F-6 and Sheesha Café Argentina Park - were also sealed for serving sheesha smoking.

The cafes or other outlets raided and fined for serving sheesha were: Café Encantre F-10 Markaz (fined Rs50,000), Café Red in F-11 Markaz (Rs50,000), Violet Café G-5 (Rs30,000), Pizza Party F-7 (Rs40,000), Café Lounge E-11 (Rs50,000) and Charcoal Café I-8 Markaz (Rs10,000).

SC directs provincial police chiefs to submit reports on steps taken to curb sheesha smoking

Similarly, outlets selling cigarette packs without the health warning signs were: Madina Cash and Carry F-11 Markaz which was fined Rs5,000, Rear Price General Store F-11 Markaz (Rs5,000), M. Asif Pan Shop (Rs5,000), M. Nisar D. Watson F-10 Markaz (Rs5,000), Iftikhar Super General Store F-10 Markaz (Rs5,000), Iqbal General Store F-10 Markaz (Rs2,000) and Jabran Mobeen Cold Corner F-10 Markaz.

Similarly, Assistant Advocate General Punjab Mudassar Khalid Abbasi told the court that to save the health of the youth and students by curbing sheesha smoking, the provincial government had tabled a bill in the provincial assembly which would hopefully be adopted in the next session of the house.

Under the proposed bill, manufacturing, selling, serving or engaging in sheesha smoking will be a non-bailable offence and will be tried summarily under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1998. The offender will be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years along with a fine of Rs100,000.

According to the report submitted by AAG Punjab, the sheesha cafes were just like drug consumption rooms and a new threat to the health of the youth.

The owners of such stores or cafes are providing every facility to the youth for soft drug addiction in very comfortable and friendly atmosphere.

The provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh told the court that they had already imposed a ban on sheesha smoking.

But the chief justice regretted that the efforts put up by the respective governments were not enough since they were not taking the matter seriously. Should the court intervene when the damage had already been done, the chief justice wondered.

The court ordered the inspectors general of the Punjab and Sindh to submit complete reports on the steps taken to curb the menace of sheesha smoking.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2015

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