LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday directed the Punjab government to submit a revised policy on how to tackle the smog issue in the province within three months.
The court was hearing a plea filed by Advocate Sheraz Raza against the government’s inability to tackle the smog that is plaguing the province.
LHC Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah chided the government for wasting time on collecting data instead of taking effective steps for citizens’ health.
The order said that smog index has reached dangerous levels in Punjab and directed the provincial government to immediately implement a plan that would bring the smog levels down. He further said that awareness in this regard should be created by relevant departments so that smog could be controlled.
The order also directed the government to clarify roles of health and education departments in the revised smog policy; also that the MET should publish smog scores on its website on a daily basis.
The hearing was adjourned until Dec 18.
Smog in Lahore this month crossed all the international benchmarks as PM2.5 level, which is termed the most dangerous pollutant in the air across the world, remained between 450ug/m3 and 500ug/m3 against the notified standards of 35ug/m3 per day.
As per World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, the daily average level of PM2.5 should not be more than 10ug/m3 and aggregated annual mean 25ug/m3 in a day whereas as per a gazette notification of the Punjab government, the daily limit of PM2.5 is 15ug/m3 and aggregated annual mean 35ug/m3 per day.
