Pakistan is facing an epidemic of obesity where around 40 to 50 million people over the age of 20 years are obese and overweight, while obesity among children is also on the rise, resulting in premature deaths and permanent disability among Pakistani people due to complications of diabetes, hypertension, Ischemic heart disease and stroke.

"Despite being a developing country, obesity is alarmingly on the rise among Pakistani population where around 40 to 50 million people are either obese or overweight. Similarly, hundreds of thousands of Pakistani children are also obese and overweight.

World Health Organization estimates that by 2045, Pakistan would among top 10 countries with obese children", said Dr Tanvir Raazi Ahmed, a renowned Bariatric and Metabolic Surgeon while delivering an awareness talk at T2F here on Monday.

Dr Raazi was delivering the talk on the theme of "Aaj sey thora kam (A little less from today)," launched by a local organization, striving to control the epidemic of obesity in Pakistan.

On the occasion, participants were screened for diabetes, hypertension and obesity and over 50 percent of the people attending the session were found to be obese with their Body Mass Index over 30.

Quoting National Diabetes Survey of Pakistan (NDSP) carried out by the Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology (BIDE) Karachi in collaboration with government of Pakistan, Dr Tanvir Raazi maintained that more than 76.2 percent of Pakistanis have been found to be overweight according to international standards as their Body Mass Index (height and weight ratio) was more than 23. Similarly, 62.1 percent of Pakistani men and women were found to be obese as they had a BMI level above 25, he added.

Type 2 Diabetes, Dr Raazi maintained, is the more serious disease caused by the obesity and claimed that in Pakistan, every 4th Pakistani of over the age of 20 is diabetic while every 5th Pakistani is pre-diabetic, which means that a person is going to acquire diabetes sooner or later if they do not mend their ways and adopt a healthy living style.