By: OUR CORRESPONDENT
ISLAMABAD: Smoking tobacco products are just as harmful to human health as other tobacco products. The tobacco industry is once again trying to mislead policy makers to legalize a new harmful product in Pakistan which has been banned by more than 12 countries around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Norway and Singapore. Europe is going to ban it soon.This was said in a consultative meeting organized by PANAH titled ‘Tactics of tobacco mafia to mislead policy makers’ which was held at a local hotel in Murree. Secretary general of PANAH Mr. Sanaullah Ghumman was host of the event. Among the guests were Members of National Assembly Dr. Nisar Cheema, Uzma Jadoon, Nizhat Pathan, Naveed Anwar Jeeva, Dr. Samina Motal, Zahra Fatemi, Ramesh Lal, Parliamentary Secretary Education Vijaya Qamar, Senator John Mehtab Hussain, Adviser to the Prime Minister. Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, and Mehwish Zaheer and Samira Khalid from Echo.
While addressing the ceremony, Dr. Nissar Cheema said that public health is top priority of government. We will not compromise on public health of people. Dr. Samina Matloob said that tobacco products are very harmful for human health. Heavy taxes shall be imposed on them. Zahra Fatmi said that nothing is more harmful of human health than tobacco. It is the leading cause of lungs cancer and many other diseases. Sitara Ayaz said that government has no other option than to impose heavy taxes on tobacco because they are very harmful for human health. Iqbal Zaffar Jhagra appreciated the efforts of PANAH and said that what PANAH is doing is actually the responsibility of the government. We are with PANAH in campaign against tobacco products. Sanaullah Ghumman said that PANAH has been exposing these industry tactics before and will continue to do its part to save our youth and the future of Pakistan. Due to the same tactics of the industry, 1200 new children are starting smoking in Pakistan every day, which is having terrible consequences on their health and livelihood. Now they want to legalize the heating tobacco products as being less harmful to health and less smoke, even though they have the same harmful effects on health as cigarettes and have some additional chemicals as well. We have also written letters to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet in this regard to immediately remove it from the agenda of the Cabinet and invite all the stakeholders. We request our parliamentarians to listen to our proposals and implement them because it is directly related to human lives and the tobacco industry is only interested in their profits. Sophia Mansoori said that the tobacco industry is misleading the policy makers with new tactics. Sometimes they are bringing a product called Velo and sometimes sheesha. The policy makers should understand the tactics of the industry. We strongly demand the government not to compromise the health of the people for the benefit of the industry. The parliamentarians said they would raise their voice in parliament regarding heating products and oppose legalizing them.