KARACHI: The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on Friday destroyed around 800 shisha or glass hookahs, equipment and tobacco confiscated by their vigilance teams during various raids over the past two weeks on shisha parlours and bars in a bid to cleanse the area of this health hazard.

The rows of sparkling green and silver, blue and silver, yellow and silver, and black and silver shisha hookahs at Defence Authority Country and Golf Club awaited their fate as a roadroller prepared to drive over them to crush them completely. On one side lay a pile of tobacco products and other equipment ready to be torched.

“The DHA took this initiative after the Supreme Court’s ban on shisha-smoking. We wanted to implement the order to cleanse DHA of this mess. Shisha-smoking is not something new and there are quite a few influential people behind it who are opposing our resolve and clean-up operation here but we are also adamant. We are not going to let this bad habit ruin our young generation,” said DHA Administrator Brig Zubair Ahmed at the destruction ceremony.

“These are only 700 to 800 confiscated items. We are aware that there are plenty more out there. Therefore, this is only the beginning. The operation will continue,” he added.

Asked if the DHA was also punishing the people in the business, the administrator said that they could not go around punishing or arresting people. “That is the job of the law enforcement agencies. But we have the support of the police during the operation as we keep our area clean,” he explained.

Meanwhile, DHA security and vigilance deputy director retired Major Syed Nayyar Raza Naqvi said the reason behind this thriving business of shisha-smoking was that it required very little investment while the profits were huge. “After we began our operation, several shisha parlours wrapped up business, but there are also more out there which are against us and are still there though not doing business openly. We are watching them,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015