ISLAMABAD – Speakers at an event on Saturday underscored the need for collective action against tobacco use. They expressed these words in his address at a seminar titled ‘Sustainable Tobacco Control Policies: A Way to Healthier Pakistan’ organized by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) at a local hotel the other day.
The event aimed at bringing together government officials, public health advocates, civil society members, anti-tobacco activists, and youth leaders to address the growing tobacco epidemic in Pakistan and advocate for comprehensive policy reforms. Musadik Malik stated, “Smoking is causing overall harm rather than any benefit. The fight against smoking will not be easy, but it is crucial. The real fight against smoking is a fight against the mafia.”
Highlighting the severe health implications, he added, “Smoking has the deepest connection with cancer, and there is hardly any disease that isn’t linked to it. Every year, 150,000 to 200,000 people die from smoking. Why can’t we see the faces of our people in those numbers?”
Former caretaker minister of information and broadcasting Murtaza Solangi emphasized the need to take tobacco use as a national issue. “First of all, we have to see it as an issue; this is not even yet seen as an issue,” he remarked.
He called for a unified approach, stating, “We have to create an ecosystem where media and everything around us reflects an anti-tobacco stance.”
Dr. Khalil Ahmad, Program Manager at SPARC, while addressing a seminar, emphasized the deadly toll of tobacco use in Pakistan, explaining, “Tobacco use is costing 166,000 lives each year, which equates to almost 450 deaths per day.”
He urged the government to take critical steps to curb tobacco consumption, particularly among the youth.
Dr. Mati ur Rehman from the Health Services Academy, Muhammad Sabir, an economist from the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), Khalida Ahmad, a board member of SPARC, Senator Sana Jamali, Nisar Ahmad Cheema, a parliamentarian, and prominent anti-tobacco activists, among others, were also in attendance and spoke on the occasion.
