Light it up: What is being done to stop smoking in the province, asks SHC

A petition by Prof Khan claims that smoking was banned in public spaces in the country in 2002

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court's (SHC) Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar on Wednesday asked authorities for reports on efforts being made to implement the ban on smoking in public places in the province.

The chief justice passed this direction while converting a letter addressed by Dr Javaid Khan, a professor at the Aga Khan University Hospital, into a petition seeking directions for the authorities to implement the anti-smoking law in the province.

According to Justice Baqar, the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smoker Health Law was passed by the federal cabinet in 2002. This law states that smoking is prohibited at all public places, including hotels, restaurants, cafes and restrictions were placed on tobacco advertising as well as on selling tobacco to minors.

Prof Khan said that a resolution against smoking Shisha in restaurants and public places was also passed by the Sindh Assembly in 2011. He added that despite claims made by the commissioner of Karachi about the ban on Shisha, this law has not been implemented at restaurants.

He claimed that in countries where anti-tobacco laws were implemented, the prevalence of smoking had declined significantly and as a direct consequence of this so had the diseases attributed to active and passive smoking. The professor said that unfortunately, not much effort had been made in implementing anti-tobacco laws in Pakistan.

The petitioner mentioned that recently, the Civil Aviation Authority had opened up a new smoking zone at the Jinnah International Airport and was violating the country's laws. He added that many hotels and restaurants were also violating the law.

He claimed that according to current law all universities are also supposed to be smoking-free zones, but nothing was being done about it.  Prof Khan claimed that in 2006 the Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice on his letter regarding the growing use of tobacco in the country and the government had subsequently taken several important steps at the time.

He said that now health had become a provincial subject after the 18th Amendment but the authorities had failed to take any action in this regard despite several complaints. He pleaded the court pass directions to the authorities concerned to take appropriate steps for implementing anti-smoking laws in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2014.