I AM conducting research related to cancer and visit the oncology out-patient department at Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre for surveys and data collection. What has horrified me is the large number of men present with oropharyngeal carcinomas. An overwhelming majority among them wereGutka consumers.

After observing this fact, I began to notice the roadside cabins regularly. From teenagers to old men munching away on this menace oblivious to the harm it was causing them.

Upon further research, I came upon a Sindh Home Department notification that under Section 144 of the CrPC, a ban has been imposed on the preparation, manufacture and sale of Gutka and Mainpuri throughout Sindh until further orders. Police officers were to take strict measures against anyone transgressing the law. However, there are complications. The gutka industry has not only thrived; it is now a cottage industry employing women.

Gutka is a brownish to white powdery and granular substance with increased relaxation and stimulant potential. Owing to its low price and easy availability it is popular particularly among the low socio-economic classes. This serial killer is responsible for 75 per cent of the cancer patients reported, besides being the chief cause of oral submucosal fibrosis in teenaged consumers.

A study published in the Journal of College of Physicians and Surgeons states that oral lesions due to continuous gutka intake resulted in a high risk of infection by the human papilloma virus too.

I asked patients why they chewed this poison. Their astonishing reply was that cancer is caused by luck and not by gutka.

A mixture of 4,000 chemicals of which 40 are carcinogenic are a major threat to consumers` personal hygiene. A law exists, only its implementation is needed.

Saira Saeed KarachiPunishment & prison T HE belief that harsh punishment will eliminate or at least reduce crime from society is misplaced and associated with eighteenth century reformist classicist criminology. There are at least two drawbacks with this approach.

First, in order for the punishment to be ef fective, it needs to be certain. Just increasing it is not entirely helpful. In f act, it may be unnecessary. The greatest curb on crime is not the cruelty of punishment, but its certainty. Most of ten than not the shortcomings in Pakistan`s criminal justice system means that those who commit a crime go unpunished.

The system of policing in the country is archaic and the force unprofessional, reducing the probability that a criminal will be apprehended and punished. Even if they are caught, the inefficient working of courts particularly the subordinate judiciary leads to perennial delays in deciding cases.

Second, crime may not always be a rational act; it may be propelled by f actors that override logical consideration, and perhaps over which the individual has no