PESHAWAR: A broad coalition of child rights advocates, youth groups, and civil society organizations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has strongly rejected the government’s move to fast-track mandatory standards for nicotine-containing tobacco-free oral products (nicotine pouches), warning that the initiative prioritizes industry profit and exports over public health, child protection, and youth well-being.
The proposal—originating from a technical standard drafted during the COVID-19 pandemic and now being pushed toward mandatory enforcement has been rejected by the Child Rights Movement; members of the EVAW/G Alliance Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the Tribal Youth Association; the Youth Parliament Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the National Volunteer Corps; and the Muslim Students Federation. These groups caution that converting the standard into mandatory regulation would normalize a highly addictive substance, expand nicotine markets, and expose children and young people to long-term harm in a country already grappling with weak enforcement and heightened youth vulnerability.
Collectively, the organizations highlighted that the proposed framework focuses narrowly on technical specifications such as labelling and a permitted nicotine cap, while failing to address essential public-health safeguards, including robust age-verification, comprehensive marketing and flavour restrictions, retailer licensing, taxation measures, and accessible cessation pathways. The coalition further expressed disappointment that the push has been industry-driven, raising serious concerns about conflict of interest and regulatory capture in matters that directly affect population health.
“Pakistan cannot afford to trade public health for profit,” said Usman Afridi, Convenor, National Alliance for Sustainable Tobacco Control. “Any policy that legitimizes high-dose nicotine products without comprehensive health protections will deepen addiction and undermine years of tobacco control efforts. The government must prioritize public health over exports.”
Youth leaders emphasized the direct risks to adolescents and young adults, warning that discreet, flavored nicotine pouches are particularly attractive to first-time users and could accelerate addiction and dual use.
“This decision places Pakistan’s youth in harm’s way,” said Bushra Afridi, Member, Prime Minister’s National Youth Council. “Normalizing nicotine products without strict access controls will fuel experimentation, dependence, and lifelong health consequences.”
Legal voices also raised constitutional and rights-based concerns, arguing that the state has a duty to protect children and young people from addictive substances and to act in the public interest.
“Regulating a product does not make it safe,” stated Ameenullah Kundi, Advocate and member of the Pukhtun Student Federation. “From a rights and public-interest perspective, this move must be halted and rolled back until a health-led framework—grounded in prevention and child protection—is established.”
The civil society organizations call for an immediate halt and rollback of all steps toward making nicotine pouch standards mandatory and urge the government to insulate health policy from industry influence. Any consideration of future action, the groups stress, must occur only within a comprehensive, health-led regulatory framework that prioritizes prevention, youth protection, and cessation support, if such products are considered at all. Thy reiterated that Pakistan’s public interest lies in reducing nicotine dependence not expanding it and urged the government to abandon policies that risk creating a new generation addicted to nicotine.
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