Pakistan: Imran Urged to Eradicate Tobacco Cultivation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Source from:  The News  09/11/2014

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, who is mobilising support in the name of 'Naya Pakistan,' has been asked to publicly promise that his 'Naya Pakistan' will be tobacco-free.
 
Drawing the attention of the PTI chairman towards hundreds of tobacco fields in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province where PTI is in power, TheNetwork for Consumer Protection Executive Coordinator Nadeem Iqbal has demanded of Imran Khan to build a tobacco-free 'Naya Pakistan' by eradicating tobacco cultivation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. "If he does not do so, he will have to construct hundreds of cancer hospitals because tobacco is a key risk factor for cancer," Nadeem said.
 
"We not only demand of the PTI leadership to promise that the new Pakistan will be tobacco-free but also expect from him to make Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a tobacco-free province by shifting its tobacco economy to non-hazardous businesses," said Nadeem. Welcoming Imran's speech in which he has vowed to make another state-of-the-art cancer hospital in Peshawar, which would be better-equipped than Shaukat Khanam Memorial Cancer Hospital, Nadeem said, TheNetwork stands by Imran Khan in his battle against cancer, but at the same time, is deeply concerned that tobacco being the main cause of cancer is cultivated on a large scale in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
 
Stressing the need to continue with idealistic politics, Nadeem said pragmatic politics does not suit Imran Khan since his party is in alliance with a political party Awami Jamhuri Ittehad, a majority of whose leaders are in the tobacco business including its chairman Shahram Khan Taraki. "Ironically, Taraki, a top tobacco manufacturer has been made KPK's health minister," said Nadeem. Before taking over the ministry, he had the portfolio of agriculture. Such political pragmatism and compromise at the cost of principles can cause dent in Khan's resolve to fight cancer, Nadeem feared.
 
Currently, in KP, over 50,000 hectares are under tobacco cultivation. However, most of the area is concentrated in Swabi, Mardan, and Charsadda. Nadeem also demanded of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to offer alternative crops policy to tobacco growers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Cultivation of tobacco results in a very high ratio of cancer and other diseases in these areas. Almost one-third of Pakistani men (32.4 %) and 5.7 per cent of women smoke tobacco, said Nadeem Iqbal adding, smokeless tobacco product use is also widespread, with smokeless users consuming 'gutka,' 'naswar' and 'paan.' Moreover, tobacco use is an emerging problem among youth. Over 100,000 Pakistanis die each year of tobacco-related diseases. The majority of these deaths result in lung, oral cancers, strokes, ischemic heart and other cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
 
Nadeem stressed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which demands lion's share in the NFC Award on the basis of revenue generated (Rs68 billion annually) through tobacco crop, should shift its revenues from tobacco to other sources. Tobacco is considered a cash crop but at the same time it is causing food insecurity in these districts, he said, as it has replaced wheat and other staple crops. "We have been convincing the farmers not to cultivate tobacco, and instead go for alternative crops because replacement of tobacco with healthy food crops could feed up to 20 million people and reduce the world's current 28 million undernourished people to 8 million," he said. Enditem