In Pakistan, illicit trade threatens health goals

In Pakistan, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is partly hampered by high tobacco consumption. Illicit tobacco trade is one of the major obstacles to the implementation of an effective public health policy.[1].

Nadeem Rizvi, a consultant thoracic surgeon at South City Private Hospital in Karachi, points to an “alarming rise” in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Pakistan. NCDs include cardiovascular diseases (such as stroke), chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD), diabetes and cancer. Tobacco use is the main driver of these NCDs, which currently account for 681,000 deaths in Pakistan, according to Dr Rizvi. This is undermining one of the World Health Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to reduce premature deaths from NCDs by one third by 2030. It is also estimated that tobacco use directly causes more than 160,000 deaths in Pakistan each year.[2].

A massive illicit trade fueled by the tobacco industry

Part of the government's failure to curb smoking can be attributed to the country's high levels of illicit trade. As one GST article published in June 2020, it is estimated that 44% of the tobacco market in Pakistan is illegal. As elsewhere, the massive involvement of the tobacco industry in smuggling has been demonstrated. In March 2020, the global investigative journalism network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), showed that clandestine factories that produced large quantities of cigarettes were actually owned by Philip Morris International (PMI), using old machinery from the manufacturer, officially scrapped[3].

In addition, the Karachi court had overturned a call for tenders launched by the Pakistani state with the aim of entrusting the implementation of a system for monitoring and tracing tobacco products to a company. Indeed, this call for tenders, written by two former employees of British American Tobacco, had been tailor-made to be indirectly under the control of the tobacco industry, further proving the latter's interest in fueling illicit trade.

Keywords: Pakistan, Illicit trade, NCDs, SDGs

©Generation Without Tobacco

[1] Business Recorder, Illegal sale of cigarettes hampers SDGs achievement, 04/25/2021, (accessed 04/26/2020)

[2] The Tobacco Atlas, Country: Pakistan, (accessed 04/26/2020)

[3] Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Without a trace, 11/03/2020, (accessed 26/04/2020)

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