Health Minister Silvia Masebo says the UPND government remains committed to ensuring that it enacts the Tobacco Control Bill into law in order to protect the people from its harming effects.
Speaking in an exclusive interview in Lusaka, Ms Masebo says government's intention is to put some controls in line with international standards and protocols developed by organizations like the United Nations (UN).
She said her ministry is anxious to take the bill on the floor of the House so that some controls are put in place with regards Tobacco usage.
"As you maybe aware, Cabinet did approve a bill to be taken to Parliament from my ministry aimed at controlling the use of tobacco in Zambia. As you know tobacco has negative impact on the people especially young ones and that a number of people get sick because of smoking tobacco," she said.
"And even those who don't smoke get affected because of the smoke that come from tobacco. So government's intention is to put some controls in line with international standards and protocols developed by organizations such as United Nations."
The Health Minister disclosed that some stakeholders have expressed concern over certain clauses and that the government has engaged them over the same.
"We have developed a bill and it was approved by cabinet and went through the committee. Except that some stakeholders brought up some issues on some of the clauses. We are now at the stage of interacting specifically with those stakeholders who had reservations over the bill," she added.
"We hope that the process will not take more time. As a ministry we are anxious to take the bill on the floor of the house. Unfortunately this session of parliament is very short and today is the last day so we are unable to present it."
She maintained that the bill will be enacted because government has an obligation to protect the people from the harming effects of tobacco.
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