ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: A civil society organization has asked the tobacco industry to stop their so-called “youth tobacco prevention” programme and termed it an ineffective project.

In a statement issued here on Friday, a spokesman for the Network - an NGO working for consumer’s right protection - said in Pakistan, tobacco companies were actively campaigning to involve the youths in tobacco consuming population.

According to the statement, a survey conducted by the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) shows that as many as 16 per cent children under the age of 17 years were habitual smokers.

“About 52 per cent of juvenile smokers study in colleges while 48 per cent of them still go to school. Though 91.8 per cent of juvenile smokers are aware of different hazards of smoking, about 78 per cent of them tried to give up smoking but could not do so,” the statement added.

It said: “Tobacco companies in Pakistan, despite awareness that children were getting involved in smoking, were doing nothing to prevent youth from smoking.

Except some companies, majority of manufacturers in Pakistan even do not bother to print under-age sale prohibition declaration on their product’s packets.”

However, the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI)- Pakistan considers tobacco industry as solely responsible for the youth’s involvement in smoking, a spokesperson for the TFI said.

“Tobacco industry spent millions to market their products to kids and then attempt to gain the public’s confidence that they were a responsible industry with so-called prevention programmes,” the spokesperson said.