Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) and Regulations has issued an order requiring an increase in the size of cigarette-pack graphic warnings, according to a story in The Nation.
Currently 40 percent, the warnings will be increased to 50 percent of the front and back of cigarette packs from June 1 this year, and to 60 percent by June 2019.
The director general of the NHS Dr. Asad Hafeez said that tobacco companies were being given time to sell already-manufactured stock before the new rule was implemented.
But he warned that companies would be fined if they violated the order.
Hafeez said also that Pakistan was a signatory to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control under which pictorial warnings on cigarette packs could be increased to 80 percent.
Two-phase warning increase
