KARACHI: Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH), National Coordinating Ministry of Nutrition, Ministry of Health and Consultant Food Policy Program (GHAI) in collaboration with senior journalists organised a workshop on “Loss of Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSB) and Importance of Taxation”.
The workshop was hosted by Sanaullah Ghman from the PANAH. In the workshop, senior journalists editors, bureau chiefs, magazine editors Muhammad Adil from Dunya News Group, Javed Baloch from Neo, Nazir Tabassum from PTV, Tazeen Akhtar from Daily Azkar, Zahid Farooq Malik, Iqbal Malik from Online, Shahid Malik from A1, Arif Kalrao from Nawa-e-Waqt, Nasir Mughal from Asas, Waqar Kazmi from Usaf, Israr Ahmad from The Nation, Tahir Amin from Business Recorder, Ghafran Chishti from Haq News, Fahad from Patriot, Muhammad Yusuf from APP, Asif Bashir from Geo, Chaudhry Wasim from Bol, Malik Usman from 24 News, Zarif Ahmed from Hum News, Azhar Jatoi from 92 News, Faisal Mansoor, Shakila Jalil, Joint Secretary of National Press Club, Shamim Akhtar from Kashmir Express. Nargis Janjua from Punjab TV, Afshan Qureshi from GNA News Channel, Nabila Hafeez from Jinnah, Ro Fahad from ZTV, Bashir Malik from A1, Azmat Khan from The Morning News, Noman from Kashmir Times, Shehzad Rajput from Capital Post and others participated.
The workshop started with recitation from Holy Quran. Sanaullah Ghman, General Secretary and Director Operations of Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) said that The Finance Bill 2021-22 is close to be finalised and is expected to go to Parliament soon. It is high time to help government functionaries like FBR, Ministry of Finance and political leadership to identify policies which may be very useful to reduce miseries of the people and provide double advantage to government.
National Coordinator Nutrition Ministry of Health Dr Khawaja Masood Ahmed said that as per WHO, 58 percent of total deaths are contributed by NCDs in our country. In other words, approximately 2200 people die every day due to these deadly diseases in Pakistan.
High consumption of sugar sweetened beverages is one of the major causes of obesity and related NCDs like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, liver and kidney diseases, some types of cancers, and tooth decay.—PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021