While the Islamabad High Court waits to hear a case regarding the enlarged pictorial health warning on cigarette packaging, the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) on Tuesday issued a notification increasing the size of the warning from 50 to 60pc, on either side of the pack. The ministry has also decided to change the image on the packaging and has directed all tobacco companies to introduce new packaging in the market from June 1. In January 2015, the government had issued a statutory regulatory order (SRO increasing the size of the pictorial health warning from 40 to 85pc and replacing the image on cigarette packs within five months. The NHS minister at the time, Saira Afzal Tarar, was even awarded by the World Health Organisation for the decision, which the government could not implement for another nearly four years. Soon after the then-NHS minister's announcement a delegation from the tobacco industry, led by a high commissioner, had met with then finance minister Ishaq Dar, and they decided that the matter would be reconsidered by an inter-ministerial committee. The committee decided that the pictorial health warning would be enlarged from 40 to 50pc - a decision that was delayed for more than two years, after civil society members went to court to keep the original increase to 85pc. The pictorial health warning was increased to 50pc by the federal cabinet in 2017, and the decision was implemented last June. An image depicting throat cancer also replaced an image depicting mounth cancer. According to a statement issued by the NHS ministry, a notification has been issued to print new packaging on which the warning will take up 60pc of the pack, on either side, for cigarettes manufactured in or imported to Pakistan. The new warning will also depict gangrene, which is caused by smoking.