PESHAWAR: Speakers at a conference on Monday urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to expedite the process of legislation on smokeless tobacco control to save the people from fatal diseases.

Addressing a joint news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Basic Integrated Rural Development Society (Birds) chairperson Dr Riaz Yousufzai and some civil society members appreciated the Sindh Assembly for banning ‘sheesha’, ‘gutka’ and ‘manipuri’ in the province and asked the KP government to expedite work on legislation against smokeless tobacco in the province.

Accompanied by Qasim Ali Khawaja of the Coalition for Tobacco Control-Pakistan, Dr Riaz said the Sindh government had set an example for other province and federal capital to give serious attention to the pending tobacco control laws.

He said tobacco caused various fatal disease including caner, blood pressure, lungs and mouth cancer, chest infection, asthma and cardiac arrest and that the passage of the bill would save the young generation from all such diseases.

“The tobacco industry mainly focuses its attention on youths particularly children for increasing its market.

“Male and female students of schools, colleges and universities are badly affected by the curse of tobacco and other drugs. The government should completely ban tobacco advertisement,” he said.

The Birds chairperson said it was everyone’s duty to watch out for tobacco industry’s tactics to lure children as future smokers and that it was the best way to make the people aware of health hazards associated with tobacco use.

He said the federal ministry of national health services and regulation had demonstrated exemplary measures by ordering the enhanced pictorial health warning from 40 percent to 85 percent on the front and back side of cigarette packs in 2015.

“The move has not only set a good example within Asia but also made Pakistan one of the few countries in the world to prefer the people’s health to business,” he said.

He complained since the announcement of the public health measures, the tobacco industry managed to influence the federal health ministry to delay the implementation of the enhanced cigarette pack pictorial policy and thus, dealing a severe blow to the tobacco control efforts.

Dr Riaz condemned the interference of the tobacco industry in the affairs of government and public institutions and demanded of lawmakers to immediately enforce large graphic health warning on cigarette packs and implement anti-tobacco laws.

Praising the Sindh government against smokeless tobacco, he said Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and his cabinet had taken a bold step to ban ‘gutka’ and ‘manpuri’ in the people’s interest.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2016