Cigarettes still easily available to children near schools

Report notes that enforcement of tobacco control laws remains lax

ISLAMABAD: Despite recent attempts, the sale of cigarettes to minors and near educational institutions remains a worrying constant in the country and the capital, in particular, says a new report.

However, amidst a general inability to enforce tobacco-specific laws, there have been some measures which offer some hope.

The Coalition for Tobacco Control – Pakistan (CTC-Pak) Thursday launched earlier this week outlining the status of enforcement of tobacco control laws in Pakistan.

The report reinforces the belief that advertisements and youth-focused marketing were one of the main tools used by the tobacco industry to reach a younger consumer base.



This was coupled with the fact that minors continue to procure cigarettes in the country easily.

“Tobacco control, on the policy front, has seen progress in Pakistan with laws and policies put in place consistent with the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC). But, unfortunately, same cannot be said about the implementation of these policies,” said Khurram Hashmi, the National Coordinator of CTC-Pak.

The report contains the results of observations carried out during the last quarter of 2016 by coalition partners of CTC-Pak in 23 cities and 18 districts of Pakistan, including Islamabad. The partners of the coalition were trained and asked to record observations in areas where coalition partners visited public places such as restaurants, offices, banks, public transport vehicles, commercial areas, cigarette sale points and educational institutions in their respective cities through a randomised protocol.



It found that Punjab led the other three provinces for storing and selling cigarettes in the immediate vicinity of educational institutions and for selling cigarettes to minors by 43.8 per cent and 50 per cent respectively. Balochistan was second with 25 per cent (near educational institutions) and 20 per cent (selling to minors), and Sindh was third with 18.8 per cent (near educational institutions) and 20 per cent (selling to minors) while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was last with 12.5 per cent (near educational institutions) and 10 per cent (selling to minors) respectively.



The report outlines a disconnect between observation of infringements of the laws and action taken by the enforcement authorities. According to the report, 86 per cent of coalition partners reported that little to no action had been taken by the enforcement agency once a violation was reported.

About 15.4 per cent partners claimed that the violators have been held accountable once they were reported.

The report identifies three factors to be as obstacles to counter tobacco industry’s interference including lack of awareness (43.2 per cent), non-responsive authorities (35.1 per cent) and strong industry influence (21.6 per cent) as major obstacles in countering TI interference.

Action in the capital

In the Islamabad Capital Territory, the report said that the situation was somewhat better with better enforcement of anti-tobacco laws though cigarettes continued to be sold to minors.

Moreover, cigarettes were sold at large selling tobacco in a slightly clandestine manner, smoking continued in public while loose cigarettes were still sold at kiosks.

However, the report acknowledged that no exclusive sheesha cafes existed within the capital.

A licencing regime for shops wishing to sell tobacco or cigarettes had seen 1,229 licences being issued during 2015-16 after the stores submitted an undertaking that tobacco control laws would not be violated. This figure stood at 312 during 2016-17.

Moreover, the licencing meant that ICT excise and taxation department raised Rs5 million in licence fees.



Moreover, as per the undertaking grocery stores do not sell open cigarettes anymore and if caught, get fined heavily and may lose their tobacco selling licenses and public places such as restaurants and cafes also if reported and caught may suffer heavy fines and closure.

Moreover, the authorities conducted 142 raids from January 2014- August 2016 in which 72 hotels and 183 people managing these hotels and restaurants were prosecuted for violating tobacco laws. They also collected Rs2.5 million in fines.

Further, the traffic police issued 952 tickets for smoking in public vehicles.

The report said that authorities had claimed to have removed over 85 per cent of shops near educational institutions.

Apart from that, 131 public spaces were designated as “tobacco-smoke free” in the capital.

At least 32 people visiting government-run rehabilitation clinics in the capital successfully quit smoking as well.

Recommendations

Based on the findings, CTC-Pak and its coalition members recommend that a National Action plan for Enforcement should be formed and Provincial Tobacco Control Cells should be set up with adequate resources including financial and human to counter the challenges.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2017.