Source: DAWN Group of Newspapers (pk)
Date: 2010-06-02
Author:  Dawn Editorial

The announcement on World No-Tobacco Day that pictorial health
warnings on cigarette packs will be enforced from June 1 is a
milestone in the campaign against the hazardous smoking habit.
The measure had been in the pipeline since Pakistan signed the UN
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004 which binds
states to ban tobacco promotion and advertising. But for
pictorial warnings to be effective, there should be an
accompanying ban on the sale of individual cigarettes. However,
statistics indicate that we have a long way to go before we can
kick the habit and become a tobacco-free state.

We have an estimated 25 million smokers . . .

While more effort is needed to enforce existing rules to
eliminate smoking, other deterrent measures must also be
considered. These include increasing the price of cigarettes and
that of other tobacco products such as sheesha and gutka.
Measures deterring the use of the latter products are needed to
prevent people from turning to cheap, readily available,
alternative tobacco products.