Pakistan among nine poor countries that produces 90 percent cigarettes for world

Lahore: London’s Imperial College has recently unveiled a study on smoking titled  Tobacco’s global environment footprint, said the latest reports.

The study showed that that tobacco production in under-developed countries should be a cause of concern for policy makers.

Citing the study, Dr Aftab Madni, dean of the Indus University, says, “Almost 90% of all tobacco production is concentrated in the developing world”.

The study reveals that  out of the top 10 tobacco producing countries, 9 are developing which includes four low-income food deficit countries (LIFDCs). “Pakistan falls in  the category of LIFDCs,” he said.

He said that major point of concern is the fact that easy availability of cigarettes has become a cause health burden. Moreover, it’s has a deeper social implication for the poor household.

He further said that members of poor household   spend major chunk of their daily earnings on buying cigarettes leaving very little to spend on food and other essential items. He gave refrence of Capital Calling which has recently demanded that there is a need for the country to follow the WHO guidelines regarding tobacco taxation.

He said similarly PIDE, a government-run research institute, has reported that there are 24 million active smokers in the country. He said the institute has reviled that, “The total costs attributable to all smoking-related diseases and deaths in Pakistan for 2019 are Rs 615.07 billion ($3.85 billion), and the indirect costs (morbidity and mortality) make up 70 percent of the total cost. The total smoking-attributable costs are 1.6 percent of the GDP, whereas the smoking-attributable costs of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are 1.15 percent of the GDP.” He said that annually 337500 deaths are reported due to smoking.

He said these statistics are reason enough for the government to increase taxes on tobacco products. He also said that Pakistan has lost Rs 567 billion just to facilitate two Multinational Cigarette companies in last seven years.