ISLAMABAD, Aug 12: All tobacco companies will go off the electronic media by 2005, while a leading tobacco company has already gone out of television and radio from Dec 2002, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the opening session of a two-day NGO and media workshop on “Promotion of healthy lifestyle”, Abdul Sattar Chaudhry, WHO health education consultant, said there would be a complete ban on advertisement of all tobacco-related products in the next five to six years. He conceded that the intention of the recently-implemented anti-smoking law was only to educate the people about hazards of smoking.

The workshop was organized by the ministry of health in collaboration with the WHO to forge alliances with NGOs and the media for promotion of healthy lifestyle.

Dr Ehsan Latif of The Network, Dr Sania Nishtar of Heartfile, Shaheen Masood, project director Women Health Programme and Dr Haroon Jehangir gave presentations on the anti-smoking ordinance, national action plan on prevention of non-communicable diseases, women’s health programme and protection of breastfeeding and young child nutrition ordinance, respectively.

Mr Chaudhry said Pakistan was among 27 countries where the prohibition of smoking and protection of non-smokers ordinance had been brought into force. “It was after 23 years that we could be able to introduce the current anti-smoking law.” Earlier, in 1979, health warning was first printed on cigarette packs.

He said both the anti-smoking and the promotion of breastfeeding laws were part of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and would stay.

He recalled that the anti-smoking law had been sent back repeatedly when it was first introduced in the cabinet because of the hue and cry raised by different sections involved in this business, including the farmers who grow tobacco, retailers as wells as the tobacco industry.

He said a committee on tobacco guidelines had completed its recommendations which would be forwarded to the law ministry for vetting.

The recommendations suggested to tobacco companies not to relate their advertisements to sports, adventure, sex, and success in life.

Dr Ehsan said the ordinance should be accepted as a good beginning but stressed that the law’s enforcement should be preceded by a general acceptance and understanding of what it entails.

Dr Sania Nishtar talked about the recent signing of a tripartite agreement between the ministry of health, the WHO and the Heartfile for a public-private partnership under which the Heartfile would develop a national action plan on non- communicable diseases, prevention and control through a consultative process involving all key stakeholders.

Shaheen Masood said every six minutes a woman died in Pakistan because of obstetric complications, and ten others suffered from morbidity due to lack of prenatal and postnatal care, unsafe delivery by unskilled traditional birth attendants, lack of access to emergency care, malnutrition and anaemia, high fertility rate and lack of child spacing, early marriages and poverty.

She said a formative research in eight districts of Pakistan revealed an alarming fact that traditional birth attendants still put weight on a woman’s body to expedite delivery; umbilical chord was usually cut by household knives and scissors and that putting an elderly man’s saliva in the mouth of a newborn was considered healthy.

Dr Haroon Jehangir presented details of the steps being taken to promote breastfeeding. He said the nutrition wing of the ministry of health was planning orientation sessions for NGOs, legislators, healthcare providers and general practitioners and a behaviour change communication strategy was also being devised.