Islamabad: Pakistan customs has seized a huge quantity of foreign brands of cigarettes worth Rs 114 million during separate raids in parts of Balochistan, Dawn reported.
Dawn is a PakistEnglish-language newspaper. The customs officials claimed to have seized foreign brands of smuggled cigarettes worth Rs 303 million last week during an anti-smuggling campaign launched in all four provinces.
A spokesperson for Customs intelligence told Dawn: “The largest batch has been seized in Balochistan, where the Customs recovered 4,280,000 sticks of foreign cigarettes during intelligence-based raids.”
He added that a total of 33,994,850 sticks of smuggled cigarettes, valued at Rs 1,324 million, have been seized by Customs intelligence in the current financial year, as per Dawn.
Meanwhile, Canada recently announced that health warnings will be required to be printed directly on each individual cigarette, making it the first country in the world to do so, reported CNN.
“The new Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging and Labelling Regulations will be part of the Government of Canada’s continued efforts to help adults who smoke to quit, to protect youth and non-tobacco users from nicotine addiction, and to further reduce the appeal of tobacco,” Canadian health officials said in a news release.
According to health officials, the labels on individual cigarettes will make it “virtually impossible” for smokers to escape warnings.
