Govnt Urged To Declare All Parks, Public Places As Tobacco Free Zones

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2025) The Provincial Alliance for Sustainable Tobacco Control – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (PASTC KP) has strongly urged the Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to immediately designate all parks and public places across the province as Tobacco-Free Zones.

This step, the Alliance emphasized, is essential to safeguarding public health particularly that of children, women, and non-smokers from the harmful effects of tobacco smoke in shared spaces.

In addition to this demand, the Alliance has called for the urgent activation of Divisional Implementation Watch Committees under the leadership of each Divisional Commissioner to ensure the strict enforcement of existing tobacco control laws.

The Alliance also appealed to the Health Department to expedite the process of presenting the “Prohibition of Smoking at Public Places and Protection of Non-Smokers' Health” legislation to the Cabinet Committee without further delay.

Citing recent data, the Alliance highlighted the grave health and economic impacts of tobacco use in Pakistan.

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use causes approximately 164,000 deaths annually in the country, equivalent to nearly 450 deaths per day.

The economic burden of tobacco is estimated at around PKR 700 billion (approximately USD 2.5 billion) per year.

This figure represents about 1.6% of Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In contrast, the tobacco industry’s contribution through taxation remains significantly lower, with only PKR 298 billion collected in 2024 less than half the economic losses caused by tobacco use.

Further underscoring the scale of the crisis, the Alliance referenced figures from 2021 that indicate that tobacco use was responsible for around 130,600 deaths, or 15.

9% of all deaths in Pakistan.

Of these, approximately 77.5% were attributed to direct tobacco use, while 22.5% were the result of exposure to second-hand smoke.

Usman Ashraf, Coordinator of PASTC-KP, stated that every day without decisive action exposes countless non-smokers particularly vulnerable populations like children and women, to harmful tobacco smoke in public areas.

He noted that declaring all parks and public places tobacco-free is not merely a public health strategy, but an economic and moral necessity.

Echoing this sentiment, Irfan Afridi, Co-Founder of "Grow Up"—a youth-led movement in KP condemned the aggressive targeting of young people by the tobacco industry.

He stressed the urgent need to reclaim public spaces from tobacco and nicotine to ensure future generations grow up in a clean and healthy environment.

Mehar Sana, advocate for social justice, called the tobacco epidemic both a public health crisis and a test of political and administrative commitment.

She emphasized that the establishment and activation of Divisional Implementation Watch Committees are critical to ensuring that tobacco control laws are meaningfully implemented at the grassroots level in every district.

The Alliance emphasised that the perceived economic benefits of tobacco are a false argument; the health care costs, productivity losses, and premature deaths caused by tobacco far outweigh any tax revenue it generates.

It urged the KP Government to prioritise public health, youth welfare, and sustainable development by taking immediate and decisive political action.