Anti-smoking efforts

I wish to draw the attention of concerned authorities through the esteemed column of your newspaper towards an extremely vital and tormenting problem due to which the life of Pakistani's has become miserable.

Smoking not only causes cancer and heart attacks, it also causes several other diseases. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people die in Pakistan every year from tobacco addiction and equal numbers get disabled from smoking-related illnesses like cancer and heart attacks.

Research done by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in May last showed that 22 million adults, approximately 19 percent of the world population, use tobacco, and thousands of young people get caught up in the habit of smoking every year.

Several efforts have been made by the government to control the spread of smoking, but all the efforts have gone in vain. Two months ago, the Ministry of National Health Services announced that the size of a pictorial warning on cigarette packets would be increased from 40 percent to 85 per cent, and the tobacco industries will introduce the new packing from March 31. Now the month of May has started, but I have not seen a single packet of cigarettes that carries the pictorial warning larger than 40 percent. I request the concerned authorities to take action regarding those industries that are not applying the pictorial warning on cigarette packets despite the health minister's order.