Is Tobacco legal in Pakistan?

Legal status

Not a controlled substance in Pakistan's narcotics law. Tobacco is not an article specified in the Schedule to the Hadd Order, which lists hemp, charas, their mixtures, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish. It is not in either schedule of the Act or any schedule of the Rules 2001 either. The narcotics regime does not reach it.

Consequences if caught

There is no quantity band for tobacco because there is no offence. None of sections 6, 7 or 8 of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 is engaged. Those sections bite on 'any narcotic drug, psychotropic substance or controlled substance', and this is none of the three. Capital and life exposure. Death is not available in Pakistani narcotics law at all since 5 August 2023, and it was never available for anything outside the three statutory categories. Death is not available. Act No. XXXVIII of 2023, section 2, assented on 2 August 2023 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, on 5 August 2023, removed every death reference from section 9. The words at the heroin and morphine band of 6000 grams or more and at the cocaine band of 5000 grams or more were omitted, and the Pakistan Code now prints a bracketed omission mark where they stood. In the fourth proviso to section 9(2) the words 'may be death or' were replaced by 'shall be'. The word death survives twice in the whole fifty page Act and both are procedural. Because death is unavailable, the question whether it is mandatory does not arise. The ceiling is life, and section 9A(3) says what that means: 'Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for time being in force, imprisonment for life under this Act means imprisonment in jail for the period of twenty-five years.' Section 9A(2) bars probation and parole, and section 9A(1) bars remission except for a juvenile or a female convict.

If prescribed or medical

Tobacco needs no licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001. No licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001 is required, because rule 2(1)(xiii) confines a drug of abuse to 'a prohibited drug, a high-risk drug, or a risk drug', each defined by reference to a Schedule to those Rules, and this appears in none of them. Rule 14 provides for permits in relation to first-aid kits and rule 15 for programmes for medical and scientific purposes, and rule 11 governs import, export and transit permits. A traveller carrying a prescribed medicine should hold the prescription and the dispensing label, in the prescriber's name, and should expect the quantity to be measured against the section 9 bands if the substance is scheduled.

Documentation

Scope of this answer for tobacco. This cell answers the narcotics question only. Pakistan regulates food, medicines and tobacco through separate regimes with their own schedules and their own penalties, and none of those was read in this pass. Saying the narcotics Act does not reach a substance is not the same as saying nothing does. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Pakistan’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.