ISLAMABAD: The Indus Hospital and Health Network (IHHN) has recently started a drive themed 'Voices Against Tobacco (VAT)' to improve measures to control tobacco in Pakistan.
The initiative aimed to foster a positive cultural change amongst peers and communities by empowering them to control their health and future.
VAT would collaborate with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to support schoolchildren by conducting capacity-building exercises in tobacco control. They would provide training at the Islamabad and Rawalpindi campuses of the educational institutes.
Malik Imran, Pakistan's representative for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that there had been little change in Pakistan's complex tobacco tax structure in recent years, despite having a mandate to raise prices through increased taxation.
Dr Saima Saeed, Director of the Lung Health Programme, IHHN, said that VAT directly responded to the demand for a tobacco control coalition in Pakistan.
