Waseem Iftikhar Janjua, Syed Ali Wasif Naqvi & Raouf Alebshehy
British American Tobacco (BAT – and its subsidiary Pakistan Tobacco Company PTC) have a long and well-evidenced history of deception and influencing policies. Additionally, within Pakistan, there is a history of BAT gaining the support of British diplomats to influence the policy process. In November 2023, BAT/PTC sought permission from Pakistan’s Ministry of Health, to manufacture and export 10-packs (also referred to as Kiddie-packs due to their affordability and easy excess to children) to the war-torn country of Sudan. Both Pakistan and Sudan are Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Aligned with Article 16 of the FCTC, Pakistan has regulations against producing packs containing less than 20 cigarettes to reduce affordability and prevent child smoking initiation. By engaging in this transaction, both Pakistan and Sudan infringed upon FCTC obligations including Articles 5.3 and 16 of the FCTC.
The Ministry of Health resisted the industry’s request, and actors in the global tobacco control community sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan requesting the prevention of manufacturing and exporting kiddie packs to Sudan. The letter was signed by 54 organizations and 60 advocates from 25 African countries. However, due to excessive tobacco industry and political pressure, in July 2024, there was a proposal by Ministry of Health to issue an amendment to the existing Statutory Regulatory Ordinance (SRO) with additional words “domestic consumption”. The proposed amendment in the SRO stated, “No cigarette manufacturer shall manufacture, sell or offer for sale, any cigarette for domestic consumption unless they are in packets of at least twenty cigarette sticks”.
Previously, BAT/PTC wanted to export 10-packs from Pakistan to the Gulf countries in 2019, but the Ministry of Commerce denied permission. BAT/PTC intended to exploit Pakistan’s ongoing economic/financial struggles to secure this recent USD 20.5 million deal by manufacturing and exporting these 10-pack cigarettes to Sudan. However, due to the excessive delay in processing and ultimate denial of this amendment, the Pakistani tobacco control community successfully prevented the materialization of this order which was ultimately delivered by Bangladesh (another WHO FCTC signatory country in South Asia).
Adding the domestic consumption clause raised significant questions regarding the ethics of cigarette manufacturing and the global tobacco supply chain. Prioritizing a country’s economic benefit over another’s public health is a repeated practice within tobacco markets, despite the WHO FCTC requirement to consider public health objectives in trade and investment agreements. This case in point merits an inquiry to signpost the tobacco industry’s repeated unethical practices prioritizing profits over public health by targeting marginalized communities, and those in fragile, and war-torn zones.
The collective appeal from multiple organizations, and tobacco control advocates also highlights the potential harm these packs could cause across the African Continent. It is reported that billions of BAT-produced cigarettes are smuggled every year to Sudan. Besides, extensive research exists implicating BAT of multiple instances of frustrating tobacco control measures in Sudan. Furthermore, in Pakistan, there is a real risk that the 10 packs produced for “export alone” could popularize in local markets due to affordability and easy excess to the children. Such unintended outcomes would contradict the stated aim of the regulatory amendment adding to the enormity of the tobacco pandemic in Pakistan.
It is vital to note that during this controversy, following pressure from BAT/PTC, Pakistan’s FCTC focal person in the Ministry of Health (a government employee) was removed from his position. There is a need to highlight the industry’s undue practices and a need for greater inter-governmental and regional collaboration to disrupt the tobacco industry’s profit-centric practices.
Waseem Iftikhar Janjua, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad, Pakistan, Syed Ali Wasif Naqvi, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad, Raouf Alebshehy, Department of Health, University of Bath, UK.