City Reporter
A man who had petitioned the Sindh High Court to ban gutka in the province has passed away. Naseem Haider had contracted cancer after consuming gutka and had filed the petition to stop others from doing the same. The court had ordered the Sindh Assembly to enact a law against gutka based on Haider’s petition. Gutka, or chewing tobacco, has been banned in Sindh ever since the Sindh Prohibition of Preparation, Manufacturing, Storage, Sale and Use of Gutka and Mainpuri Act, 2019 was passed on December 19. It was tabled by Information Minister Saeed Ghani Under the law, chewing gutka can land you a six-year imprisonment and Rs500,000 fine. Hundreds of people in Sindh died of mouth cancer in 2019. At Civil Hospital alone, eight to 10 people are hospitalised over mouth-related diseases every day.
