NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION (NBF), A SERVICE RENDERING EDUCATIONAL WELFARE ORGANIZATION, INAUGURATED AS TOBACCO – SMOKE FREE FACILITY

National book Foundation (NBF), a service rendering educational welfare organization, inaugurated as Tobacco – Smoke Free Facility. NBF was established in 1972 as a service rendering educational welfare organization. Pakistan is striving hard to make the Tobacco-Smoke free its territories, particularly, Islamabad. In the ongoing campaign, National Book Foundation Head Office in capital has been declared as a smoke-free zone.
The one day orientation session was arranged in NBF with the collaboration of CA&DD. Federal Secretary of National History & Literary Heritage Division, Engineer Aamir Hasan graced this auspicious occasion as a chief guest. He expressed his views that we have a dream of Tobacco-Smoke Free Pakistan and for apprizing this massive task, we started it from our homes. “Tobacco is a social sector horrible evil and we should save our generations from that by adopting concrete measures at all level as it is threaten us all,” he said. He advised to quit tobacco and especially smoking from today once for all. “No matter how you smoke it, tobacco is very dangerous to your health and there are no safe substances in any tobacco products”, He said. He further stated that the smoking not only affect your few parts of body but also affect your entire body.
The Managing Director, National Book Foundation (NBF) Dr. Inam Ul Haq Javeid expressed his views as a key speaker there that CA&DD has taken an initiative of “Tobacco- Smoke-Free Islamabad” towards ending of Tobacco epidemic in Capital and NBF has been given an opportunity of making it Tobacco-smoke free facility zone in this drive. He said that it is no denying fact as it is too difficult to quit the smoking or tobacco but there is no way inspite of quitting this in your own interest. He offered NBF close cooperation with any government functionary particularly with CA&DD who has been embarking upon this noble cause of making our environment smoke free.
This orientation session was organized under the World Health Organization theme of this year as, “TOBACCO-A THREAT TO DEVELOPMENT.” The large number of writers, scholars, NBF Book Ambassadors and people from all walks of life attended this valuable enlightening event. Dr, Minhaj Us Siraj, the Project Director as focal person for implementation of tobacco control laws and Syed Jawad Muzaffar, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Islamabad as key speaker expressed their views over this important issue of present age. In their opinion, the tobacco epidemic is a cause of death of about six million people each year globally and shockingly, more than six lac are non-smokers among them by breathing second-hand smoke. They explained in this regard that nearly 80% of these preventable deaths belong to under-developed countries. They further stated that 274 deaths per day are happened accumulated with about one lac per year because of tobacco in Pakistan which seems very alarming rate of deaths here. They said that we should take concrete steps to control this Tobacco Hazards with collective efforts. Mr. Muhammad Aftab Ahmad, Project Manager conducted this useful and informative session on Tobacco Control. It was proposed that NBF will publish written books on this very topic which will be a source of firsthand information for all and sundry. At the end of the orientation session, NBF Head Office, Islamabad was declared as Tobacco-Smoke Free Zone and installed an inauguration plate.