Pakistan Alliance for Nicotine and Tobacco Harm Reduction (PANTHR)

Pakistan is a country with heavy use of tobacco. With more than 24 million tobacco users¹, the country is also one of the top ten raw tobacco producers in the world².

Despite successes in the tobacco control efforts, Pakistan continues to witness a constant increase in the number of tobacco users. After almost two decades of tobacco control efforts, Pakistan has reached a stage where it needs to find innovative approaches to help smokers quit smoking. Critically smokers need to be at the center of innovative approaches, helping them to achieve the ultimate goal of quitting smoking.

Pakistan Alliance for Nicotine and Tobacco Harm Reduction (PANTHR), a project of Alternative Research Initiative (ARI), is an initiative aimed at promoting innovative solutions for smoking cessation. While remaining committed to and supporting tobacco control efforts in Pakistan, especially Article 14 of FCTC, the alliance serves as a platform for advocating and promoting all innovative solutions for ending smoking whether counselling, NRTs, or harm reduction.

Further, the alliance serves as repository of research and scientific work and initiatives on safe nicotine delivery systems and harm reduction for tobacco control. PANTHR works with the policy makers, partners, and smokers in making Pakistan smoke free.

¹ Shaheen, K., Oyebode, O. & Masud, H. Experiences of young smokers in quitting smoking in twin cities of Pakistan: a phenomenological study. BMC Public Health 18, 466 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5388-7
² Iqbal, A. Muhammad and Sabir, Muhammad, Role of tobacco in Pakistan's economy: an untold story. Social Policy and Development Centre. 2018

Membership

The membership of the alliance is open to a wide variety of partners, including the associations, CSOs, NGOs, trade bodies, medical professionals, online social groups, tobacco control advocates, etc. The main mode of the membership will be online.

Function

The alliance serves as a platform for advocating and promoting the use of innovative alternatives such as harm reduction as part of tobacco control efforts in Pakistan.
The alliance is a repository of research and scientific work and initiatives on harm reduction as a strategy for tobacco control. It reviews and disseminates credible information on harm reduction products.
The alliance advocates for sensibly regulating the use of harm reduction products in Pakistan, with focus on its regulated use for smokers, especially the poor and the marginalized.
The alliance works to improve the access to legal and genuine HRPs for the smokers in Pakistan, especially the poor and the marginalized.
The alliance supports all efforts for tobacco control in Pakistan. The alliance supports FCTC.
The alliance links, cooperates, and works with organizations in South Asia and beyond supporting and promoting harm reduction for tobacco control.
The alliance actively works to promote the legal use of harm reduction products in Pakistan and makes efforts to stop the promotion and use of fake HRPs in the country.