Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Network for Consumer Protection in conjunction with the Child Rights Movement (CRM) released a first-ever analysis of the previous official reports on Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Pakistan, here, on Friday.

Ever since Pakistan had signed and ratified the FCTC in 2005, a biennial report on its implementation status was regularly submitted by the National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) to the FCTC secretariat. However, this year, TheNetwork also prepared an alternative report to the official version.

Its CEO, Nadeem Iqbal, said on the occasion that by ratifying the FCTC, the government had been obligated to implement its articles by 2010, which meant that Pakistan was already six years behind the schedule. “The fulfillment of international treaties falls in the ambit of the federation even though health has been devolved to the provinces,” he added. While the government narrative had previously noted the existence of a strategic plan of action for tobacco control in Pakistan, Iqbal believed that, “It is imperative that the government develops a national tobacco control strategy which clearly articulates the role of the federal, provincial and district governments in policy making legislation and enforcement. Only by having a national tobacco control strategy with proper allocation of government funds and its ownership to this cause can we progress and move forward in tobacco control.”

It was also asserted that the health ministry should be empowered enough to implement reforms. “Many decisions are made in favor of the tobacco industry which enjoys influence and can pressurise the government due to the taxes that it pays. The retraction of the health ministry from its stance of announcing 85 percent GHW early last year is a lucid example of the health ministry’s subservient behavior.” he lamented.

The most interesting fact is that some of the figures used by our government are those released by the tobacco industry, which serves as a cover up in contrast to the real tobacco scenario in Pakistan, he said.

According to Network Project Coordinator Maria Qureshi, tobacco control has been thrown on the back burner. Blatant statistics such as 1,200 children taking up smoking everyday and 110,000 deaths due to tobacco have not been sufficient enough to motivate the government into taking harsher actions for the Pakistani children’s protect.

“This leniency and casualness towards tobacco use would give us a nation tied down by addiction, leading to increased hospital bills, reduced productivity and a mired upcoming generation,” she said.

Child Rights Movement (CRM) National Coordinator Alishba emphasised that the government should take necessary actions to stop branding and advertising tobacco product as mentioned in the FCTC and United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UGOOD CEO Ishtiaq Gillani, while talking to media, said that protecting children should be the top priority of the government and for that laws should be yielding to the Framework Convention on Tobacco control.

“There are different Pakistani laws bind the tobacco industry to carry out health warning and disclosure of nicotine and tar content on every pack of cigarette but these regulations need to be activated and enforced by the federal government in letter and spirit,” the Shadow report says.

These include the Federal Excise rules that specify that printing of nicotine and tar contents, from such date as the board may specify, no cigarettes shall be cleared from any factory unless these conform to the health standards prescribed by the federal government and nicotine and tar contents are duly printed on each packet of cigarettes and in case of failure to observe any such condition – an embargo shall be imposed on clearance of cigarettes in such manner as may be directed by the collector.

Hence the government, the board and the cigarette manufacturers are bound to meet all the conditions and restrictions which may be imposed by the government in compliance of the FCTC adopted on the May 23, 2003. This concludes that since 2003, the tobacco packs – according to Excise – should be duly labelled with nicotine and tar contents before clearance, which could otherwise result in embargo. “But these are not been complied with,” the shadow report says. Impregnable laws with proper implementation and enforcement is the only way to annihilate tobacco use from our society.