Minister Rejects Call for Religious Cigarette Ban

Malaysia’s Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad rejected a call to ban cigarettes based on Islamic considerations, reports the Malay Mail.

“I am not a mufti to make cigarettes haram [forbidden],” he said in response to a lawmaker’s comment at a party convention on Dec. 24.

The exchange followed the passage in Malaysia of new legislation that regulates tobacco advertisements, packaging and public smoking but excludes a provision that would have made it illegal for Malaysians born after 2007 to buy or consumer nicotine products.

The so-called generational tobacco ban (GEG) was abandoned after the Attorney General’s Chambers suggested it might violate the constitution by creating different rules for different age groups. Critics however blamed tobacco industry pressure for Malasia’s U-turn.

Earlier Ahmad had apologized for the failure to retain the GEG in the tobacco law.