ISLAMABAD: Appreciating the initiative of the former federal minister Dr Nadeem Jan, health activists have urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to ban serving and sale of beverages in all ministries and divisions.

They have said the beverages were not only high in calories but also caused weight gain and obesity, which in turn led to fatal diseases like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

Talking to Dawn, Pakistan National Heart Association (Panah) General Secretary Sanaullah Ghumman said diseases were increasing rapidly due to consumption of sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods due to which thousands of precious lives were being lost every day.

He said during the tenure of the caretaker government, Panah had a meeting with then health minister Dr Nadeem Jan and requested him to play his role to ban beverages in the ministry.

“Dr Jan, without any delay, directed the ministry to issue a notification banning the serving of beverages in the health ministry. We also tried to approach the then prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar to get the decision implemented in other divisions but it could not happen,” he said.

Mr Ghumman urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to direct all ministries and divisions to stop serving of beverages and sales within the ministries.

Representative of Global Health Advocacy Incubator Munawar Hussain said the government should formulate a coherent and effective policy to deal with this growing health crisis.

“In the upcoming finance bill, a federal excise tax should be levied on ultra-processed foods including biscuits, chips, soup, chocolate, ice cream, candy, pasta, processed meat products, etc. Apart from this, tax on sugary drinks should be further increased to reduce their consumption and help control diseases. The revenue from this tax should be used to make healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and pulses cheaper,” he suggested.

He also demanded that the subsidy given at the utility store should be given only on healthy food.

Experts advocate 26pc FED

While on Women’s Day, one of the tragedies that went unreported was the cost of smoking that women had to pay.

Dr Hassan Shehzad from International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) said in rural areas, both poverty and smoking levels were higher than urban areas, which was surprising.

“The share of morbidity and mortality costs for females is underestimated because of their lower rates of labour force participation and difficulties in putting monitory value on their informal contribution to household production,” he said while quoting a study by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

“Part of the problem is cheap price of cigarettes and civil society and health experts have underlined the need for increase in FED on cigarettes. There is a need for 26pc FED increase on cigarettes to bear the health burden and make for the revenue shortfall that smoking has created,” he said.

“At present, Pakistan has two tiers of tax on cigarettes and international guidelines require a uniformed tax system for this sector. Multinational companies place their products on the second tier so that they had to pay less tax, hence the prices of cigarettes come down and they become accessible to the masses,” Dr Shehzad said.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2024