Saqib Ali Haidri
Muzaffarabad: The capital city of Azad Kashmir [Muzaffarabad] has witnessed an alarming increase in the number of teenage smokers despite the fact that smoking is prohibited in all public places.
Pakistan became a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on February 27, 2005; smoking is prohibited in all places of public work or use, and on all public transport. Many forms of tobacco advertising and promotion are prohibited, including advertising on domestic TV, radio, billboards, and in print media. But prohibition of smoking could not be implemented so far.
There are two principal ordinances governing tobacco control in Pakistan. Using the powers conferred by the two ordinances, officials in Pakistan have issued a series of SROs (statutory notifications) to implement, amend, and update its tobacco control laws.
The first principal ordinance is the Cigarettes (Printing of Warning) Ordinance 1979 (Ordinance No LXXIII of 1979), which effectively requires that health warnings be printed on tobacco product packaging. SRO 86(KE)/2009 establishes the rules on the printing of warnings. SRO 87(E)/2009 establish the initial warning text and its accompanying image.
Since the promulgation of these SROs, the government has twice altered the length of the rotation period for the health warning. First, the government published SROs 01(KE)/2010 and 02(KE)/2010, delaying implementation of the pictorial health warning from February 1 to May 31, 2010. Second, the Ministry of Health issued a memorandum, No. F. 02-16/2007-FCTC on the Extension of Current Pictorial Health Warning, extending the rotation period to December 31, 2011. SROs 22(KE)/2015 and 23(KE)/2015 increase the size of the health warning to 85 percent of both front and back of cigarette packages.
Additionally, the SROs prescribe rules regarding the rotation, manner, look, and design of the single health warning. Implementation of the larger warnings was originally scheduled for March 30, 2015; implementation, however, it has been delayed several times.
The alarming increase in the number of teenage smokers in Muzaffarabad is quite distressing and it has become indispensable to control smoking and prohibition of its sales and use among teenagers. There is dire need that the authorities at the helm of affairs must take effective cognizance of the matter and take appropriate measures to enforce relevant laws to counter the menace of addiction to tobacco.
