Stakeholders at a consultation on Monday pledged commitment to tobacco control initiatives by signing a consensual statement. The statement emphasized the need to address newer nicotine products, in addition to traditional tobacco. The signatories vowed to work collaboratively to ensure the successful implementation of these efforts for a healthier society. The pledge was made at the...
The number of smokers in Pakistan has reached 31 million and 466 people die daily in the country due to tobacco-induced diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and chronic lung diseases. To overcome this loss of life and healthcare resources, the Tobacco Health Levy Bill which has been pending since 2019 must...
ISLAMABAD – Speakers at a sensitization session on Wednesday underlined the need of multisectoral tobacco control policy, to control mushrooming trend of tobacco use in Pakistan as the country falls among the top ten tobacco consumers in the world. The capacity building among legislator, media and academia was imperative to control the...
Country Representative of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Malik Imran Ahmad has said that Pakistan’s cigarette production has jumped around 90 per cent with the introduction of third-tier taxation. The government should introduce single-tier tobacco taxation and increase taxes to discourage smoking among children and the youth, he said, adding the third tier taxation system that...
Pakistan made a commitment in 2005, when it signed the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to reduce tobacco consumption and ensure the right of people to the highest standards of health. At the moment, 19.1% of people, over the age of 15 years, in the country use tobacco in any form...
Ending tobacco use globally is not just a compelling public health imperative but is also key for social justice and corporate accountability. Let us not forget that each of the diseases caused by tobacco could have been prevented, and every tobacco-related death averted. Add to this that every health condition that increases the risk...
Being a signatory to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco control (FCTC), Pakistan is ideally required to levy taxes of at least up to 75% of the retail price of cigarette packs. However, the current scenario says the opposite, stated by tobacco control activists in a press brief on Tuesday in Islamabad....
Islamabad: A number of different diseases caused by tobacco products have turned out to be one of the major financial burdens on Pakistan’s public exchequer and personal income, with a $1.3 billion in annual health cost. This is revealed in a research study, “Health Implications of Smoking in Pakistan,” published by the Center for Global...
Tobacco control activists have demanded that the government increase FED on tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco products, in Pakistan. Currently, there are two tax slabs for cigarettes. An amount of Rs 33/- FED is imposed on cigarettes costing less than Rs. 90/- per packet and Rs. 90/- on cigarettes with a price of Rs. 90/-...
