Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A legislative body of the Upper House of the Parliament on Wednesday directed the local administration of Islamabad to check the sale and purchase of illegal, illicit cigarettes and submitted the report in the next meeting.

The committee was of the view that the local administration had totally failed to ensure a ban of smoking in public places including inside public transport, though a clear cut law already existed. These views were expressed by senators at the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, which held its meeting on Wednesday at the Parliament House while Senator Sajjad Hussain Turi on the chair.

The committee members were of the view that the law against smoking in public places already existed but it was never being implemented in letter and spirit. A representative of the Local Islamabad Administration apprised the committee that action was taken over the violator of the Anti-Smoking law.

The committee was informed that a proper licence had been issued to shopkeepers who were interested in selling cigarettes, under the condition that it would not be sold to under-aged children, students and others.

The Islamabad Administration official informed the committee the department had ensured the implementation of the anti-smoking law in the urban areas and so for now about 33 vendors had got their licences for cigarette selling. He also claimed action was taken against some violators which included fining then and sealing their outlets.

The committee also discussed “The Islamabad Prohibition of Sheesha Smoking Bill, 2016”, introduced by Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati in the Senate, during its sitting held on September 26. However, the committee could not pass the bill due to the view that a certain portion of the existing law already covered moves against “Sheesha smoking”.Senator Numan Wazir Khattak was against a total ban over “Sheesha smoking” but adding that no other country banned it.

He said it would not be unfair if Pakistan became the first country to ban “Sheesha smoking”. He claimed that there was a contradiction on the government’s part — on one hand the government wanted to regulate the use of smoking while on the other side it was considering a total ban over “Sheesha smoking”.

He said there existed several laws but those were simply not being effectively implemented properly and these included the anti-smoking ban.

After a long discussion, the committee was still indecisive over the complete ban on “Sheesha smoking” and at last dropped the bill holding the view that a certain portion of the existing law already covered the ban on “Sheesha smoking”.

The committee also constituted a sub-committee to check the affairs of the government and the private run hospitals in Sindh and Balochistan under the convenership of Senator Dr Ashok Kumar.

Senators Numan Wazir Khattak for KPK, Sajjad Hussain Turi for Islamabad Capital Territory and Khalida Parveen and Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi would check the hospitals of Punjab province. The committee was of the view that most of the private run teaching hospitals claimed that they would check 50 per cent patients free of cost but they never did so. The committee decided to check the record of all such private teaching hospitals across the country.

The committee also expressed serious reservations over the PMDC policy regarding admission in medical collages’ across the country. The committee was informed that some private teaching hospitals took a huge amount of money from the students seeking admission and despite of the assurance by the Minister of State, Saira Afzal Tarar, no action had yet been taken against such hospitals.