Ban on injurious substances rejected

Members of a parliamentary committee on Wednesday turned down a bill seeking a ban in Pakistan on shisha and other injurious substances, according to a story in Dawn.

The Islamabad Prohibition of Shisha Smoking Bill, 2016, which was introduced by Senator Mohammad Azam Khan Swati, was taken up for discussion at the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services’ (NHS) meeting, which was chaired by Senator Sajjad Hussein Turi.

The bill aimed to ban the manufacture and import of, and the trade in, shisha on the grounds that it was injurious to health and caused cancer.

It garnered support from some representatives of the NHS, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), and the Law Division.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Senator Nauman Wazir was strongly against the bill.

However, Wazir reportedly told Dawn that despite what some people said he was not defending the interests of the tobacco industry. Pakistan, he said, received Rs134 billion in revenues from the tobacco industry, which employed about a million people. “I care about these people and not the industry,” he said.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Law Division said the word ‘other’ in the bill would lead to ambiguities that only the courts could define. But he suggested the bill be adopted and declared beneficial for the public.