PESHAWAR:Appreciating the Sindh Assembly legislation to ban Sheesha, Gutka and Manpuri in the whole province, representatives of a non-government organization, asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to expedite the legislation on smokeless tobacco control.
“Tobacco causes various fatal diseases including the caner, blood pressure, lung and mouth cancer, chest, asthma and also cardiac arrests.
The passage of the bill will save our young generation from the diseases” said Dr Riaz Yousafzai, the chairperson while addressing a news conference on “Basic Integrated Rural Development Society” (BIRDS), at the press club on Monday.
He said that the tobacco industries mainly focused on and targeting youth and particularly children for boosting their markets. He added that male and female
students of schools, colleges and universities had been badly affected by the curse of tobacco and other drugs. He suggested the government should completely ban tobacco advertisements.
Flanked by Qasim Khawaja, the Communication Coordi-nator, Coalition for Tobacco Control-Pakistan (CTC-Pak) and Faraz Ahmad, he said that the Sindh government had set a great example for other provinces and the federal capital to give serious attention to pending tobacco control laws.
“It is our duty to watch out for tobacco industries’ tactics to lure our children as future smokers” he said and maintained that it was the best way to make the common people aware of health hazards associated with tobacco use by having enhanced “Pictorial Health Warnings” (PHW) on cigarette packets.