Controlling teenagers: Worried parents make DHA ban shisha

Owners upset about likely losses, plan to go to court against the housing authority.

KARACHI:

Smokers in Defence will most likely head to cafes in Clifton following the ban on the use of shisha.

The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) warned all café owners that their trade licences will be suspended if they violate the ban. The restriction that came into force on Monday has unnerved the owners of nearly 50 cafés who claim their customers are now heading to cafes situated outside DHA.

The ban does not apply to cafes and restaurants in parts of Clifton that do not within DHA jurisdiction. “There is little we can do about that,” said DHA’s town planning and building control director Mian Mehmood Yousuf.

“Shisha is banned around the world and there is no reason why we should not act against its sale here,” said DHA’s town planning and building control director Mian Mehmood Yousuf, who stands by this decision. “There is no turning back now.”

The DHA took the step under the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002. Yousuf explained that the authority had given enough time to the owners to rethink their business strategy. “We issued public notices a couple of weeks ago but no one took it seriously.”

Does the same ban apply to the sale of cigarettes? Yousuf struggled to explain this. “We are doing all we can to stop the menace,” he said. “Shisha was attracting teenagers.”

The businesses are, however, planning to take DHA to court. They have decided to form a trade association and get it registered with the government before they approach the courts.

Ammar Ahmed, who runs Cafe Mazeh, felt that DHA should not have allowed the sale of shisha in the first place. “People have put Rs10 million to Rs20 million in opening just one cafe,” he said. “No one at the DHA warned us when we registered our businesses with them.”



Ahmed felt the decision was absurd given that shisha is commonly sold everywhere else. “Our customers will just go to Boat Basin.”

Interestingly, not all of Clifton is exempted from the ban. Cafes in Block 8 and Block 9 will also have to close shop if they continue to sell shisha.

According to Ahmed, shisha was main source of revenue for these cafes. “This will affect everything else we sell at our outlets,” he said. “Food is basically an accessory. Who is going to make DHA understand all this?”

According to industry officials, a cafe that has 40 to 50 running tables earns between Rs100,000 and Rs200,000 a month from shisha sale. With this revenue gone, the owners are worried that they might have to increase the prices of meals.

Meanwhile, DHA vigilance department head Colonel (retd) M Amjad defended the decision by saying that they were pressurised by parents. “Members of DHA residents association have asked us, more than once, to take action against such cafes,” he admitted. “Even the residents who come to us for other matters never forget to highlight the menace these cafes have created in the neighbourhood.”

Deputy Commissioner says DHA has no authority

The deputy commissioner South, Jamal Mustafa Qazi, insisted though that DHA was interfering in government matters by enforcing a ban on shisha. “DHA is a development authority and this action is completely unacceptable,” he said. “Imposing a restriction like this does not fall under the mandate of DHA.”

There is already a partial restriction in place that bans shisha sale to teenagers, he said. When Section 144 was imposed and shisha was banned, Qazi recalled that they held meetings with cafe owners and agreed upon certain guidelines that included discouraging people to sit inside a cafe for more than two hours.

The deputy commissioner’s office will take necessary steps to stop DHA from imposing this ban, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2013.