People must stand up and raise their voice against what may be termed a pre-meditated budgetary murder
KARACHI: Pakistanis have the distinction of smoking over 65 billion cigarettes in a year. A cigarette consists of various toxic chemicals such as nicotine, carbon monoxide and tar along with heavy metals and several carcinogens. Over 100,000 Pakistanis die as a result of this poisonous entertainment and many more suffer from various diseases.
To further enhance these statistics, the government has come up with a brilliant strategy that aims to institutionalise smoking-related death and misery. Pakistan has generously dropped, in its latest ‘cancer-friendly’ budget, duties on the most smoked, third-tier cigarettes from Rs0.32.96 to Rs0.16 per pack. This will certainly and drastically raise the number of smokers, deaths and profits made by the tobacco companies.
Pakistan is a signatory to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which calls in its article 6 for “price and tax measures to reduce the demand for tobacco” by raising the FED by at least 75 per cent. Ironically, instead of raising the tax from Rs0.32.96 to Rs0.57.68, it was dropped to Rs0.16 per pack. This is a state-sponsored criminal and structural arrangement that would only bring gloom and destruction to millions of Pakistanis.
The regulations also require cigarette packs to carry pictorial and text warning on 85 per cent of the front and back surface. But the government continues to postpone implementation of this law, so as to let the people remain ignorant and let the tobacco industry build its profits.
People must stand up and raise their voice against what may be termed a pre-meditated budgetary murder.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2017.
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