Islamabad - The ministry of national health services on Wednesday announced the introduction of new larger size of pictorial health warning on cigarette packs, covering 85 per cent of the cigarette pack on both sides.
Under the new measure, cigarette packs manufactured in the country, sold in the country and imported into the country will be required to have the new pictorial warning on their packs mandatory by March 30, 2015.
With the introduction of the warning, Pakistan will become the third country in the world, besides Thailand and India, to have enhanced pictorial health warning to 85 percent. Currently, the pictorial warning covers the packs up to 40 percent.
Minister for National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar announced the measure at a press conference along with Federal Secretary Muhammad Ayub Sheikh and Tobacco Control Cell officials. By announcing this step, Pakistan has fulfilled its obligation under Article 11 of the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control and become a world leader for the other countries to follow, Tarar told the media persons.
The matter of introducing the new enhanced pictorial warning has been stalled since 2011. Now the size of the waning has been more than doubled from 40 percent to 85 percent, said the minister.
Pictorial warning on tobacco packs is the most effective means of communication with tobacco users, the minister said. “According to research, a smoker looks at the picture at an average of 7,000 times in a year. Moreover, those who intend to initiate smoking are discouraged by the warning where as it encourages those who intend to quit smoking.” The picture that will be displayed on the packs is of a cancer patient from Thailand chosen to leave a horrifying impact on the smokers. The government of Thailand allowed to use the picture on the request of the ministry, she informed.
The minister added that any manufacture, importer, distributer or retailer violating the new law shall be proceeded against according to law. “The ministry will write to the chief secretaries of provinces to implement the law. And, the provinces will not need any legislation to implement it as their consent has already been included through Council of Common Interests.”
Regarding taxation of tobacco products, the minister said a working group of stakeholders was holding consultation meetings and would recommend taxes in the light of World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation that is 70 percent.
To a question she said the ministry would announce drug policy on coming Wednesday that would guard the interests of patients as well as the manufacturers. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Cabinet had recommended to the ministry to sit again with the stakeholders and review the policy as the manufacturers had some concerns and were appealing to the prime minister to look into the matter. Their concerns were addressed but the prices of drugs would be reduced too for the first time, she maintained.
The minister claimed that refusal cases during vaccination drives were reduced because of measures taken by the ministry and government. “About 1.7 million children used to miss the polio vaccine drops in 2013-14 that have reduced to only 200,000. They remain inaccessible because of military operation in Bara, FATA, and security situation in a few union councils of Karachi.”
The ministry had also proposed third party evaluation of vaccination drives of polio and measles to reveal the quality of campaigns in the country that were under way, she added.