Shisha smoking: More than just a puff of smoke

RCB received complaints from public claiming the shisha centres to be involved in drug and liquor sales.

RAWALPINDI:

The authorities have started cracking down on shisha smoking centres which are mushrooming in the posh areas of the cantonment. Cafes in the areas of Saddar, Westridge and Scheme-III have opened up in the past few years and have been selling flavoured tobacco shisha.

“Mostly young people, including girls, visit these cafes. The youth smoke shisha for thrill and are at a high risk of going for other kinds of drugs and intoxicants,” said Raja Aftab Kiani, a Westridge resident.

Muhammad Ali, a high school student told The Express Tribune that he regularly visited these cafes on weekends and enjoyed different shisha flavours. Ali, who had just visited the café in Westridge said he did not find shisha smoking harmful.

Manager of a shisha centre in Westridge, while defending his business said, that the café was opened after taking due permission from the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB). He further said that flavoured tobacco is less harmful than the normal huqqah or cigarette; also they do not sell it to under-age visitors. He said they are only giving a new dimension to the age-old tradition of huqqah smoking and trying to keep it alive in the modern era.

“We regularly pay the relevant taxes to RCB and majority of the cafes are opened after getting necessary licences from the cantonment authorities,” the manager said. Speaking about the legality of the shisha centres, RCB legal adviser Malik Khurram Shahzad said the licences were issued only for running a café and not for selling shisha tobacco. Advocate Shahzad said the cantonment authorities will not allow the illegal activity within their limits as there are reports of sale of other harmful narcotics at these centres.

A petition was filed by D-Smoke, a café in Saddar, after RCB issued them a notice to close their centre but the case was dismissed by the court and the café was closed, said Shahzad. RCB Station Commander Brigadier Asmatullah Niazi said they were taking action against shisha centres due to increasing public complaints. Some of the cafe are involved in drug and liquor sales.

Niazi stated that the United Nation’s health agencies have declared shisha injurious to human health. He said shisha centres in cantonment limits have been asked to close down their business after official orders were issued against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2011.