ISLAMABAD: After initial reluctance, the federal government on Friday agreed with the tobacco industry that the size of pictorial warning on cigarette packets should be increased incrementally and truly after a survey proves that the warning really discourages smoking.

Monetary interests of both sides prevailed over the health concerns at a meeting between officials of the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Board of Revenue and the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) and representatives of the influential tobacco industry where the agreement was reached.

NHS Minister Saira Afzal Tarar felt satisfied after the meeting and denied that her ministry capitulated to the profit motive.

Also read: Minister surprises tobacco lobby with new regulations

“It is better to get something than nothing, so I agreed to 10 per cent increase in pictorial warning annually,” she told Dawn.

“Unfortunately the decision to increase the warning size to 85 per cent of the cigarette packet could not be implemented in neighbouring countries. However we have not moved back from our stance and the target of 85 per cent will be achieved in a few years time.”

But for the starter the date for first 10 per cent increase has been put off by one month, to August 31. Rules allow another two months for the existing cigarette stocks to exhaust.

“After two years a survey will be conducted to assess if increasing the size of the warning indeed made smokers quit smoking cigarettes, or they have started smoking smuggled cigarettes,” said Minister Tarar.

Ms Tarar had announced on February 11 this year that the size of the pictorial warning will be increased from 40 per cent to 85 per cent and the tobacco industry will be told to introduce the new packing from May 31. Since the rules provided a grace period of 60 days to exhaust existing stock, the effective implementation date became July 31.

In the meantime, the powerful global tobacco industry mounted efforts to stop the implementation. It even used diplomatic pressure to convince the Ministry of Finance and the FBR for the purpose.

However Ms Tarar declared in the parliament that she will not step back an inch from the decision taken and won the appreciation of the World Health Organisation for the bold stand she took.

On Friday, though, the tobacco lobby won.

An official of the Ministry of NHS, requesting anonymity, said that the ministry tried to resist scuttling of its decision but had to surrender because it appeared that the tobacco industry had already won over the Ministry of Finance and the FBR to its side.

“Industry representatives convinced them that increasing the size of pictorial warning will not only destroy local tobacco growers and sellers but also decrease government’s revenue,” he said.

“Our counter argument that the people and the government spend more on the treatment of to cigarette-related diseases than the revenue earned did not register on our officials,” he added.

Another official privy to the meeting quoted the representatives of cigarette companies saying that instead of decreasing the number of cigarette smokers, bigger size of the warning will only increase the use of the smuggled cigarettes, affecting the revenue of the country.

“They also suggested holding a survey if smokers quit smoking because of the pictorial warning,” he said.

“It seemed that some participants had been won over by the tobacco industry as they were more interested in defending the case of the tobacco industry than caring about the health of the people of Pakistan,” he said.

Minister NHS Ms Tarar while talking to Dawn said that the representatives of tobacco industry saw no benefit in making the pictorial warning bigger. They demanded proof if it had decreased the number of smokers so far. But no such data was available, she said.

Ms Tarar said that the recommendations of the meeting will be sent to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and will be finalized after his approval.

An SRO (Statutory Regulatory Order) will be issued for the implementation of the recommendations, she said.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2015

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