World Health Organization has jointly awarded the World No Tobacco Day 2026 Award to the Tobacco Control Cell of Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services and Senior Researcher at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute Dr Waseem Iftikhar Janjua.
According to an official report today, the Award is presented annually to individuals or organizations from each of the six WHO Regions in recognition of their outstanding contributions to tobacco control.
Pakistan has implemented key policy changes to reduce tobacco consumption, including over two hundred percent increase in tobacco taxation during the fiscal year 2022-2023, larger pictorial health warnings on tobacco packaging, National Tobacco Control Strategy 2022-2030 and the establishment of provincial Tobacco Control Cells.