LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has expressed deep reservations regarding the lack of effort by the Punjab government to curtail the current situation of smog and has reproached the non- availability of data related to air quality whilst hearing a petition that seeks measures to control the ongoing situation of smog.
Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah reprimanded the relevant departments on learning that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently installed air quality monitoring stations suggest that the authorities have been reporting the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Lahore inaccurately.
It was revealed during the petition hearing that the persistent spell of smog has converted Lahore into a “gas chamber” akin to New Delhi and Beijing. For several years, experts have been raising concerns about the amount of pollutants in the metropolis’s air, but the major regulatory body EPA has lacked both instruments and initiative to monitor and address the issue.
During the hearing, the LHC directed the provincial government to take pertinent actions and in the next hearing come up with the accurate data of air quality in the province.
The provincial government has imposed Section 144 in the province till December 16 to bar farmers from burning leftover crops waste, which believed to be one of the prime contributors to the smog problem in Punjab.
