Pakistan accuses India of causing Lahore to become the most polluted city in the world

Authorities in Lahore, the second-largest city in Pakistan, implemented emergency measures on Sunday, including halting primary schools and enforcing work-from-home orders, due to unprecedented levels of air pollution.

According to data published by the provincial administration and Swiss company IQAir, the city recorded its highest pollution reading ever on Saturday, 1900, close to the Pakistan-India border. This put the city at the top of a real-time list of the world’s most polluted places on Sunday.

As a dense layer of fog engulfed the city, Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced at a press conference that the government had closed primary schools for a week and advised parents to make sure their children wore masks.

She added that pollution counters had been sent to hospitals and that residents had been asked to stay home, keep doors and windows closed, and refrain from needless travel.  According to Aurangzeb, 50% of office workers would work from home in order to cut down on car pollution.  To cut down on pollution, the government has also banned rickshaws, which are three-wheeled vehicles, and stopped building in some places. According to her, factories and building sites that don’t follow these rules risk closing.

Aurangzeb described the situation as “unexpected” and attributed the deterioration in air quality to winds carrying pollution from neighbouring India. “This cannot be solved without talks with India,” she said, adding the provincial government would initiate talks with its bigger neighbour through Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

The smog crisis in Lahore, similar to the situation in India’s capital Delhi, tends to worsen during cooler months due to temperature inversion trapping pollution closer to the ground.