Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that the government had reconstituted the committee on tobacco advertisement guidelines in September 2018. Director General Health, Director Implementation MNHSRC, Technical Head Tobacco Control Cell, representatives of provinces and NGOs amongst others are members of this committee.
Health experts are of the view that lack of will for the enforcement of current laws is clearly visible, as the government has already made multiple legislations against tobacco advertisements and promotions which are yet to be fully enforced in the country.
According to law, every cigarette packet manufactured or sold must carry the health ministry's approved pictorial health warning. The government had increased size of this warning to 50 percent of the pack effective from June 1, 2018. Now the health ministry has further increased it to 60% effective from June 1, 2019. While on the other hand, markets are flooded with smuggled brands which don't carry the approved health warning. This shows lack of government will on the enforcement side, as health ministry is only writing letters and not interested in developing an effective strategy to enforce the current laws.
The Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance, 2002, governs multiple areas of tobacco control, including restrictions on public smoking, sales to minors, and tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Several other pieces of legislation augment the terms of this primary ordinance. In addition, SRO 653(I)/2003 lists additional places as "places of the public work or use" to be included in that ban on the use of tobacco products and SRO 51(KE)/2009 requires all of such places to be 100% smoke free.
According to the Tobacco Advertisement Guidelines 2009, the ministry of health has put a complete ban on free sampling, customer incentives and cash prizes on sale of cigarettes to consumers; however, many local cigarette manufacturers are clearly violating these laws by offering incentive schemes, prizes, money back schemes, etc, to consumers.
Health experts were of the view that these illegal promotion activities target youth and are continuously ignored by the officials concerned. Therefore, it is urged if the government is serious about controlling tobacco consumption in the country, especially in the youth, then it should focus on enforcement of current laws in full letter and spirit. It seemed that the ministry's current strategy seems to be focused on formulation of new laws, which does not fulfil the actual objective of reducing the tobacco consumption in the country.