Tobacco Industry in Pakistan

By YesPakistan.com Staff Writer

Pakistan's tobacco industry has been a traditionally dependable source of government income, contributing some 27.5 billion rupees per year - the equivalent of 4.4% of Pakistan's GDP. It has the largest yield of any crop in that country and employs some 1 million Pakistanis.

But in the last few years, there has been a growing concern about the ill effects of cigarette smoking and the impact it has on the health and well being of Pakistanis. For instance, approximately 90% of lung cancers in Pakistan are attributable to cigarette smoking.

In the last decade or so, there has been a large anti-smoking backlash in the United States. The recent out-of-court settlement of $360 billion between "Big Tobacco" and participants in a class action suit has spurred the development of anti-smoking coalitions in other parts of the world.

The decline in smoking in North America, especially the United States, has been offset by a strong push from the large tobacco companies to find converts in the developing world. As tobacco control is tightening in the West, transnational tobacco companies are becoming more active in developing countries. The result is that tobacco use is declining at the rate of 1.5% in the West but at the same time it is increasing at the rate of 1.7% in the developing countries.

While the anti-tobacco movement in the USA helped lower cigarette sales, Big Tobacco, the largest US companies: Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and Brown and Williamson, as well as the British American Tobacco Co., have continue to expand overseas.. They have flooded the markets in Asia and Eastern Europe with advertisements, promotional products and cut-price brands designed to encourage new smokers.

According to the Pakistan Pediatric Association, every day more than 1,000 children between the ages of six and 16, start smoking. It is estimated that more than a third of men and some four percent of women in the country are smokers.

Every year, the government spends some US$20,000 on anti-smoking messages but cigarette companies spend millions of dollars annually on advertising.

According to the prestigious advertising magazine 'Age', the Lakson Tobacco Company spent an astounding $6.4 million on publicity in 1998, making it the third largest business advertiser in Pakistan that year.

Anti-tobacco campaigners accuse the government of being swayed by the tobacco industry. According to independent estimates, the Pakistani government collected over $300 million in tobacco tax in 1990, slightly more than a tenth of the government's total revenue earnings that year.

Anit-tobacco activists say that whatever benefits the government is reaping in the short term from tobacco-related industries will be significantly offset by the long term health care problems of average Pakistanis devastated by smoking addictions.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/18/2002 8:06:40 AM

Readers' Comment

SHUJA R. KHAN: 12/3/2005 10:25:38 PM
LICENSED GENOCIDE CIGARETTES KILL OVER 5,000,000 MEN AND WOMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD ANNUALLY, WITH NO EXCEPTION OF AGE. IT IS LEFT TO THE IMAGINATION OF THE READERS TO GUESS THE NUMBER OF SICK AND DISABLED. THE MONEY IS LOST FIRSTLY IN TOBACCO CONSUMPTION , THEN IN FIGHTING THE DISEASES RELATED TO SMOKING AND OTHER TOBACCO PRODUCTS, BESIDES THE LOST INCOME OF THE DECEASED. LEGAL BATTLES ,SEPARATION OF FAMILIES AND ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION ARE EXTRA BURDEN ON THE HUMANITY. WHAT MORE DO WE NEED AS INFORMATION OR EVIDENCE TO LABEL SMOKING AS THE DEADLIEST AND COSTLIEST EVIL IN OUR LIVES / IN TODAY'S WORLD.WE HAVE MORE THEN ENOUGH DATA WELL CONFIRMED AND DOCUMENTED. WHO DO WE BLAME FOR THIS FREEDOM TO KILL AT RANDOM ? THE WORLD'S JUDICIARY OR / AND THE WORLD'S EXECUTIVE ?? OR BODIES LIKE UNO , WHO , UNICEF .............THE LIST IS LONG.??? ON PURPOSE I WILL NOT MENTION THE CULPRITS WHO OWN VESTED INTERESTS IN PROMOTION OF THIS VICE. ONE DAY SOME ONE CRAZY LIKE OSAMA SHALL MOBILIZE THE SILENT MASSES , THE SIX BILLION OR MORE OF THE COMMONERS...........TO BRING ALL THAT TO STREET JUSTICE...................... BY HANGING WITH ROPES AROUND THEIR NECK, AT CROSS ROADS OF OUR TOWNS AND CITIES. ALL THOSE WHO APPEAR TO BE COMFORTABLE TODAY. THIS HEINOUS CRIME OF OUR TIME WILL NOT GO UNANSWERED. LET US WAKE-UP TO REALIZE BEFORE IT WILL BE TOO LATE. SINCERELY, SHUJA R. KHAN

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