ICT told to crack down on sheesha in hotels

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Health wants the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration to crack down on five-star hotels providing sheesha.

The Tobacco Control Cell of the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination wrote to the ICT administration after a parliamentary committee took serious notice of sheesha smoking at five-star hotels and sectors like F-6. It ordered that all necessary steps should be taken to stop the practice.



Members of a Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, in its meeting last month, objected that a certain five-star hotel and other restaurants in F-6 offer sheesha. They lamented the fact that no action had been taken against such establishments by the health authorities.

However, ICT officials claim it is not offered regularly at hotels and the department has already collected Rs2.5 million in fines from sheesha sellers.

Currently, 3.7 million adults use water pipes (hookah/sheesha) in Pakistan, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) of the health ministry.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2016.