I RECENTLY retrieved a cigarette packet from a trash can outside a gymnasium in the federal capital. As can be seen in the accompanying image, the packet clearly mentions that it was specially manufactured for the Aiwan-i-Sadar in Islamabad. Some questions agitated my mind instantly. Is this being done with taxpayers’ money? Is the staff of the presidency getting some kind of a free quota of cigarettes? Is there a complete lack of awareness in the highest office in the land that smoking happens to be hazardous to health?

Frankly speaking, I have not seen in a long time any person holding some public office to be smoking in public, which is a clear indication that smoking in this day and age is not an act that is considered politically correct.

There are photographs of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah holding a cigarette in his hand. Great Britain’s wartime prime minister Winston Churchill was also famous for his love of cigars. Former Pakistan prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was also known for his smoking habits, but those were different times. Were they not?

I am not aware as to when the practice of getting cigarettes especially packaged for the President House came into practice. It would be in public interest to find out if this facility is meant for the staff or for the state guests.

The fact is that it is time to completely ban smoking in the presidential residence because, as the stark warning on the packet reminds one and all, ‘smoking causes gangrene’. And, yes, the warning, as the packet says, is from the Govern- ment of Pakistan. The ‘state’ should listen.

Tughral Yamin
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2025