ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: An advocacy programme for clerics appears to be in the offing to convince the public that smoking goes against the injunctions of Islam.

The plan was discussed at a workshop on “Civil society and tobacco control” here on Wednesday. The participants said they would launch various programmes to apprise the people of the bad effects of smoking.

They said the Aga Khan University Hospital would convince its doctors to open tobacco cessation clinics.

More than 100,000 estimated deaths occur each year in Pakistan from preventable tobacco-related diseases. The participants discussed how civil society can help control one of the country’s leading killers. The economic and social research council of the UK had funded a research work of the Pakistan Anti-Tobacco Coalition, which played a key role in winning the anti-smoking ordinance of 2002.

Richard Bourne of the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit at the London University told the workshop that the PATC had a major success in stimulating civil society to campaign for the reduction of tobacco advertising.