The World No Tobacco Day would be observed on Saturday May 31 throughout the world including Pakistan. This year the Day to be marked under the title “Tobacco Free Youth”. A recent report published in Pakistan says that total 250 million smokers (36 per cent males and 9 per cent females) exist in the country.

The report further says that the number of smokers is on the rise in Pakistan mainly due to easy availability of smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes in the open market. In the year 2007, total 77.92 billion cigarettes were manufactured in the country. Out of which about 16.64 billion cigarettes were illegal and fabricated due to which the government exchequer is facing a loss of Rs. 7 billion annually, market estimates said.

The World Health Organization also in a report has pointed out that the use of substandard cigarettes is the main source of various human diseases including respiratory disorder, cancer and TB that cause rising number of deaths. A number of factories situated in Azad Kashmir, Sargodha, Chakwal, Okara and Bahawalnagar are involved in excessive production of counterfeit cigarettes, and the use of such cigarettes are causing multiple lungs diseases among smokers, the report says.

Smoking at public places including bus stands, railway stations, parks, trains, hospitals, markets and offices has been witnessed as routine issue. The government of Pakistan promulgated the Ordinance 2002 to ban smoking at public places and is considering slapping ban on use of ‘sheesha’.

The report also says that publishing the health warning on every cigarette pack is mandatory; however, a big consignment of cigarette packs carrying no such warning is available in the open market for sale, which is a glaring violation of the law. The Health Ministry has yet not taken any action to control this illegal trade of cigarettes.