ISLAMABAD: The Smoke Free Islamabad Model Project has been successfully replicated in five Punjab districts in the last four months, the project director said on Wednesday.

Tobacco control laws have been implemented in the Rawalpindi, Faisal, Sialkot, Lahore and Gujrawala, and it is now compulsory for high-rise buildings in the districts to be smoke-free.

Smoke Free Islamabad project director Dr Minhajus Siraj said the project began in 2014 with an aim to achieve 80pc of its project goals.

“Not only have we declared all public places smoke-free in the federal capital but with the passage of time we also declared public transport smoke-free. It was not easy to implement it, but with the support of traffic police we achieved our target,” he said.

“It was part of the project to ensure signage across the city and now it can be observed in every educational institution, offices and other places in the capital. 160 public places were made completely smoke-free. Five high-rise buildings and eight universities of the capital have been made smoke free. Moreover, during the last four months, legal action has been started against 125 shops selling tobacco near educational institutions,” he said.

In April 2017, a third party audit certified that 80pc of the project’s goals had been achieved, after which efforts began to request other provinces and cities to replicate the project.

“As a first step, Faisalabad started replicating the project and then it was replicated in Rawalpindi. On Wednesday it was replicated in Gujranwala, where Gujranwala Deputy Commissioner Sohail Akhtar resolved to quit smoking himself,” he said.

The target is to reach 139 districts of Pakistan through district governments. A situation analysis in the form of baseline surveys has been started, and status of implementation of laws and second-hand tobacco smoke concentrations in 300 public places of each district is being evaluated, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2018