The number of cigarette smokers in Pakistan is increasing after every passing day. These include business men, the elite group and now college and universities going students as well. It is a fact that smoking cigarette causes many problems, such as lung cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer and many other types of cancer which have also been linked to tobacco use. Health experts say that it kills nearly six million people each year, of which 100,000 deaths occur in Pakistan. Of the six million deaths, more than 600,000 are victims of passive smoking. At a seminar organised on Tuesday by the Pakistan Chest Society, National Alliance for Tobacco Control (NATC) and the Aga Khan University (AKU), NATC chairperson and AKU consultant chest physician Prof Javaid Khan said that tobacco products such as cigarettes, water-pipe tobacco and other tobacco are being smuggled from across borders.“The fact that this trade is more prominent in low- and middle-income countries, such as Pakistan, rather than in high-income countries places many of this region’s countries at risk. These products are untaxed and unregulated, carry no health warnings, and meet no packing or labeling requirements,” he said.
I would like to request the government of Pakistan to eliminate this practice so that the assets of the nation like our students should not be wasted anymore.
Hamid Ali
Turbat