Another initiative for tobacco control, Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship (TAPS) monitoring, has been launched by The Network for Consumer Protection to monitor advertising and promotional activities and patronization of different campaigns under the guise of corporate social responsibility by tobacco companies. The Network Executive Coordinator Nadeem Iqbal, while highlighting the significance of the initiative, said tobacco promotion and sponsorship was marginally an unattended subject by regulators in Pakistan. Monitoring of TAPS by The Network is funded by Bloomberg Global Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, implemented by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (TFK) and International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union).

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In August 2011, the tobacco control directorate of the Ministry of Health organized, for the first time in the country, a workshop on smoking cessation. The workshop represented a major step forward in implementation of the WHO FCTC in the country, in particular of Article 14, Demand reduction measures concerning tobacco dependence and cessation, and Article 12(d), which states that each Party shall promote and strengthen public awareness of tobacco control issues, including through “effective and appropriate training or sensitization and awareness programmes on tobacco control addressed to persons such as health workers, community workers, social workers, media professionals, educators, decision-makers, administrators and other concerned persons.”

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