Parliament urged to legislate against shisha smoking

Residents have requested the Parliament to ban shisha smoking in restaurants, cafes and public places, as it is extremely injurious to health.
A senior citizen Nokhaiz Sahi said that most five star hotels, restaurants and cafes in the city were offering shisha in a variety of flavours. He said that boys and girls could be seen smoking shisha in cafes all over the city. The Narcotics Act has already been enforced in the country but effective steps are needed for its implementation, he added.
Another citizen Usman Ali opined that a large number of teenagers including school and college students could be seen smoking shisha outside restaurants and hotels across the country. New shisha cafes were sprouting all over the country because of the increasing demand by the younger generation, he added. He said shisha was a modern form of ‘hookah’ in which hazardous and aromatic tobacco was used to attract teenagers.
Saleem Ahmed, an O-Level student, said almost 50 percent of students were becoming addicted to shisha smoking and it was popular among female students as well. Different kinds of flavours were being used to lure the youth towards smoking, he said.
Dr Imran said smokers inhale up to 150 times more tobacco in a single session than a cigarette. Shisha causes lung diseases, cancer and flavoured smoking is more harmful to health than simple cigarette smoking, he added. He said shisha smoking had become a fashion symbol in the society but the smokers did not know that it was in fact a delicious killer, which killed the smoker gradually.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), consuming the smoke for an hour is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes. He said the government must create awareness regarding the harmful affects of smoking.