GEORGE TOWN: The Health Ministry (MOH) is committed in tabling the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 in the current Parliament session.
Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa assured that the second reading of the proposed law, which is also dubbed the Generational Endgame (GEG) bill, would be tabled before the end of the Parliament session on Nov 30.
"Insya Allah, I guarantee that the bill will be presented before the end of the current parliament session," she said when met by newsmen at the state-level Madani Afiat Programme and Healthy Malaysia National Agenda Tour (ANMS) here today.
She said this when asked on the Attorney-General Chambers' (AGC) statement that it had been consistent since 2022 in its legal opinion that the GEG provisions in the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill could be challenged in court.
Yesterday, Attorney-General Datuk Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh was reported to have said that said the provision contradicted Article 8 of the Federal Constitution since it created unequal legal treatment between a person born before Jan 1, 2007 and an individual born on and after the same date.
The AGC was referring to a statement by former Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin published in CodeBlue on Nov 14 as well as the New Straits Times last Thursday.
Khairy had claimed that two Cabinet ministers had allegedly blocked the bill, aimed at making Malaysians born after 2007 banned from buying or consuming nicotine products.
Khairy, through a post on Instagram, had expressed his disappointment because the Cabinet decided to drop the provision related to the ban on tobacco and vaping based on age from the relevant bill.