Shadow report exposes real scenario of tobacco use in Pakistan

Islamabad

In an attempt to show the true picture behind the “all good” veiled arguments of the federal ministry of health, TheNetwork for Consumer Protection Friday launched the first of its kind shadow report, an analysis of official government report on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Pakistan in collaboration with the Child Rights Movement (CRM).

The FCTC was signed and ratified by Pakistan in 2005. As a signatory, Pakistan submits an implementation report to FCTC secretariat after every two years.

TheNetwork has prepared alternative report to the one submitted by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) this year.

Highlighting main points of the report, Nadeem Iqbal, the CEO of TheNetwork said that by ratifying the FCTC, it was obligatory for our government to implement its articles of by 2010, which means Pakistan is already six years late.

Nadeem Iqbal said, “The fulfilment of international treaties falls in the ambit of the federation even though health has been devolved to the provinces.” At odds to the government’s statement that a strategic plan of action exists for tobacco control in Pakistan, he said, “it is imperative that the government develops a national tobacco control strategy which clearly articulates the role of the federal, provincial and district governments in policy making, legislation and enforcement. Only by having a national tobacco control strategy with proper allocation of government funds and its ownership to this cause can we progress and move forward in tobacco control.”

Highlighting another important fact, Nadeem said, it is important that the health ministry should be empowered to take and follow through decisions on health related matters, which is now submissive to other ministries such as the finance ministry. “Many decisions are made in favour of the tobacco industry which enjoys influence and can pressurise the government due to the taxes that it pays. The retraction of the health ministry from its stance of announcing 85 per cent graphic health warnings early last year is a lucid example of the health ministry’s subservient behaviour,” he lamented.

The most interesting fact seen is that some of the figures used by the government are those released by the tobacco industry, which serve as a cover-up in contrast to the real tobacco scenario in Pakistan. This serve as a masquerade for the growing tobacco epidemic in Pakistan, camouflaging the need for more stringent FCTC compliant legislations as the only existing tobacco control law is the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002, a legislation prior to the signing of FCTC.

Dr Maria Qureshi, project coordinator at TheNetwork said, “Tobacco control has been thrown on the backburner. Glaring statistics such as 1,200 children taking up smoking everyday, and 110,000 deaths resulting due to tobacco-related causes every year have not been sufficient to motivate the government into taking harsher actions to protect the children of Pakistan. This leniency and casualness towards tobacco use would give us a nation tied down by addiction, which would lead to increased hospital bills, reduced productivity and a mired upcoming generation.”

Alishba, national coordinator of CRM emphasised that the government should take necessary actions to stop branding and advertisement of tobacco product as mentioned in FCTC and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. CRM is a coalition of more than 200 civil society organisations working for the promotion of child rights in Pakistan.