Currently, the districts of central Punjab are becoming dangerous for urban life due to air pollution, children, old people are suffering from respiratory and ear, nose and throat diseases. This series is not today, looking at the continuous increase for more or less two decades, international health organizations are also concerned.

Declaring Lahore and other densely populated cities of Punjab as the most polluted day by day is a link in this series.

A bench comprising of Justice Shahid Karim of Lahore High Court on Friday heard a petition to seal polluting factories in the province and not to de-seal them until they submit an affidavit of remedial measures to emit black smoke.

In this regard, there are orders to stop smoke-emitting vehicles at the district level in the province and impose heavy fines on them, but all this seems to be not implemented.

The sanitation situation is not good in the major cities of Sindh province including Karachi and  the same is case in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to the report of the Department of Meteorology, Lahore smog rate is the first in terms of 447 paralytic meters while the Indian capital Delhi ranks second in the region with 403 paralytic meters. . Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi says that the 740% increase in the trend of burning crop residues in Indian Punjab is alarming and this is also the reason for the increase in smog in Lahore.

Normal life in smog areas has started to be severely affected. Emphasis is placed on ensuring the use of masks, which requires individual and collective efforts to implement, however, prevention of smog is a prerequisite. Not only health issues are on the rise, traffic incidents are also reported due to smog. Last year, a great number of deaths were reported in road accidents during the smog phases i.e. in November and the same is feared this year. The citizens have been asked to be extremely cautious and careful while driving on the Lahore roads during the deteriorating air pollutions in the country's second biggest city. It is a sort of horrible air pollution which turns into public health emergency in winter  in  Punjab , particularly the Lahore city.

This capital city has been confronting this menace since 2011 but despite the a decade of sufferings by the people, the Govt has miserably failed to  form a strategy to avert this yearly crisis. Every year, as the mid of November approaches, the citizens of Lahore become more vulnerable to respiratory ailments and chest infections. The irony is that there is full-fledged Climate Ministry but with no clear cut policies and comprehensive strategies on how to work to fight out the smoggy dangers. According to air pollution data released by the US Air Quality Index, Lahore is on top of the list of most polluted cities in the world with the worst harmful air quality levels. Even India's Delhi and Kolkata come after Pakistan and a placed at third and fourth while Karachi is the fifth city Lahore showed a particulate matter (PM) rating of  over 300 due to which the city in included in the "hazardous" category of air quality. Different areas of Lahore fared worse. The Kot Lakhpat (industrial area) crossed over 400, with Fatehgarh housing most of the steel melting industry, and other areas near 400 AQI. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) instead of doing something concrete to mitigate the sufferings of Lahori's only released a monthly report recently about its steps to control smog. And its activities as seen from its report are just to collect Rs38 million fine from different sectors which is not a solution.  

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) and other related organizations have also miserably failed to form a comprehensive strategy in this hazardous matter.  Such smog has also been impacting the economy of the affected region but there is a need for climate activism from the civil society too, which has not been as proactive in Pakistan as it should have been. Experts say that Air pollution has worsened in the country in recent years due to a number of factors including a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from industrial units crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalesce into stagnant clouds of smog. Besides, India is also responsible for smog menace in Lahore as the India burning of fuels, smoke from vehicular and plants emissions, explosive material used near Pakistan border by India, burning of rice stubbles that send smog across the border to Lahore. It has also been noticed that after Diwali, Lahore experiences greater hazards smog every year. 

The purpose to say is that smog is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made hazard and it needs multiple strategies at national and regional levels to control it. Though the government has been making hue and cry over climate change effects and is also introducing some measures for environmental conservation, but it is totally oblivious to the menace of smog.  The outcome of this lackluster approach in containing smog is more perils for the economy and for the citizens who are facing a lot of difficulties in performing their routine tasks. 

The smog menace has reached a level where one advise the govt to set up a special commission or tribunal to investigate the grave issue and come up with urgent actions on war footing level.  Not only the air level is hazardous in Punjab, the riverbeds and surrounding spots are also  polluted due to which the wetlands have destroyed and greenery is vanishing.  In a nutshell, all living things including plants and animals are also at risk due to smog but both the Federal and Punjab govt are deep in slumber and need to be awakened to this serious issue.

To conclude, the court decision to seal the polluting factories is something to be appreciated but these orders should be implemented in the fullest, so that the menace of smog can be controlled to some extent.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 07 2023

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