Cigarettes (Printing of Warning) Ordinance, 1979

The Cigarettes (Printing of Warning) Ordinance, 1979 requires health warnings on cigarette packaging and advertising in Pakistan. Section 2 defines "cigarette" to include biris, and "packet" to include any wrapper or container. Section 3, as later substituted by a 2002 amendment, requires a health warning — worded as the Ministry of Health prescribes by Gazette notification — to be printed legibly and prominently, in both English and Urdu, on every packet of tobacco and on all forms of cigarette advertising across any media.

Section 4 bans manufacturing cigarette packets, selling or offering cigarettes from such packets, or possessing or offering packets for sale, if the required health warning is missing.

Section 5 sets the penalty: imprisonment up to two years, or a fine up to ten thousand rupees, or both, for violating Section 4. On conviction, the court must also order forfeiture of the offending cigarettes and packets to the Federal Government. Section 6 extends liability to a violating company's directors, managers, secretaries, or other officers or agents, unless they prove the violation happened without their knowledge or that they exercised due diligence to prevent it.

Section 7 requires prosecutions to be based on a written complaint from a police officer of at least Assistant Sub-Inspector rank, an Excise Officer of at least Sub-Inspector rank, or another officer the Federal Government authorises, and bars trial below a first-class Magistrate. Section 8 gives the Federal Government rule-making power. This Ordinance is the historical legal foundation for cigarette health-warning requirements in Pakistan, though the specific warning wording has been updated by later notification and amendment.