A member of the DHA staff confiscates sheeshah from a cafe. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD NOMAN
The team, along with the police, raided the place after they reportedly received information that Latte Lounge was the only café among the ones at Sehar commercial in Phase VI which was still serving sheesha.
While DHA officials believe that such venues offer the youth opportunities to indulge in “wrong” activities, the owner of Latte Lounge, Adiya, vehemently denied any such activities taking place at her café.
When contacted, Adiya rejected the allegations by DHA, saying that the café was a family restaurant and sheesha was just one of the promotional items on the menu. After DHA’s order banning sheesha at restaurants, however, the café stopped serving it, she said. “Our café was bombarded with absolutely uncivilised DHA personnel for no reason,” claimed Adiya. “When they didn’t find sheesha being served, they simply dug out equipment from our stores and made a cheap, flashy video of the whole scenario.” The DHA spokesperson, on the other hand, said that previously there were multiple cafes and restaurants at Sehar Commerical serving sheesha but after the ban, they stopped doing so. “But we received information that Latte Lounge was still serving sheesha and that is why we only raided one café.”
The spokesperson added that the authority is committed to closing down all sheesha joints within its jurisdiction in order to “save the youth”
“Many parents have asked us to closedown these sheesha lounges which are instrumental in spreading waywardness in the society. We also have instructions from the interim government and the Supreme Court of Pakistan to shut down such venues.”
Regular sheesha cafe goers, however, appear to find nothing wrong with the habit. Ahmed Faraz, a regular sheesha smoker, said that the DHA should also seize the cabins selling cigarettes and pan as they are also injurious to health and a menace to the society. “This is all staged as there are many venues serving sheesha - the crackdown shouldn’t be only in one area, but all over the city.”
Last Wednesday, on April 3, two cafes in Khayaban-e- Rahat - Luminous and D Lounge - were sealed after several raids. Around 30 flavours of tobacco were found from the venues. The DHA conducted the raids under the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2013.
COMMENTS (17)
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Give some credit to the police authorities. Why would they ransack your show room shelf . They have definitly found something concrete. Please stop these activities which are banned. If nothing , it gives a good night's peaceful nightmareless sleep when we stop 'banned' activities. We get peace of mind and its priceless.
How about cigarettes
How ridiculous that they went to the Latter Lounge cafe without evidence. Why did they make a video and have to be cheap about it?? No integrity.
A cople of points, Firstly sheesha cafes in the middle east are usually meeting points of many educated, liberal thinking, academic types, poets etc. Yet take this trend out of there and it turns into something very different, we are having the same problem in the UK, I wouldn't say it's a doorway to " waywardness" but maybe taken out of context to the original idea of a cafe where people can meet and discuss many issues. Secondly why aren't they cracking down on the selling of fake cigarettes in Pakistan, being a smoker and having visited Pakistan many times, The amount of times I have paid good money for bogus cigarettes is amazing.
Why should liquor be banned? Does it harm the health of 20 others around you? Tobacco should be banned at public places. I do not drink but I smoke cigarettes. I am all for the ban on both cigarettes and sheeshas at public places.
I say ban cigarette smoking too. How unfair for sheesha smokers to see people in restaurants smoking on cigarettes! The authorities should shun this double standard and apply the policy equally- you can't choose to ban one and not the other. Shows how confused our authorities are!
What about wine, cocaine, drugs, heroine spread in other parts of Karachi
Dha authorities and police should stop moralising and instead focus on real crime! What evidence do the authorities have of 'waywardness'?
@Nadir: You're right of course. But the problem is that they are not cracking down on sheesha because of the no-smoking laws. It's because of some ridiculous belief that sheesha is "immoral" and "immoral" activities happen at sheesha cafes.
Which is why they tried to ban sheesha cafes especially only to be told by the court that it was already covered by the no smoking laws. Just shows where they are coming from and that it has nothing to do with public health or being anti-tobacco. They are just passing nonsensical moral judgement.
Ban this completely
Zabardast DHA ! Keep it up. We need authorities like you to save the next generation from these trends!
You have my full vote!
Hats off to the tabacco industry who have managed to grease the palms of the higher-ups in order to meet their end game. Well-played!! Can the qualified law-makers please tell me why Cigarettes along with ghutka and pan have NOT BEEN BANNED in DHA? Secondly, why is this law only restricted to DHA?
I am a sheesha smoker. I dont smoke cigarettes. I say ban BOTH if the government is truly committed to helping the youth. Ensure the ban is country-wide . . unless DHA feels that the entire country's youth population lives in DHA alone. Sometimes, "Stupidity of the Highest Order" can ONLY be found in members of the armed forces who were taught not to use their brains but to follow orders BLINDLY. Good luck guys. At least now the ET readers know reality :) And oh, the cafe at Saher Commercial, Lane 2 above the (illegal) bike mechanics shop still is operational with a few police mobiles daily parked down below enjoying tea in the local "chai ka hotal". Marvelous!!!!
Please put a ban to this, I started with shisha now I have been smoking cigarette for 6 years now. It was fun at that time but I really regret it now.
Smoking in public spaces is against the law. The same people who frequent such establishment go on and on about how Pakistanis don't follow the law, and how we need "change". However, when things go against you suddenly its just a "menu item". Though at the same time, authorities should just follow the law rather than making moralistic statements claiming to "save the youth".