LAHORE: In an effort to tackle smog, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the Punjab government to issue a notification to private offices in Lahore to halve staff attendance, Aaj News reported on Thursday.

During the hearing, Justice Shahid Karim heard a set of petitions on the Punjab government’s failure to deal with environmental issues. Judicial Water and Environmental Commission recommended closing down schools in smoggy areas, however, the LHC rejected the request.

The high court ordered that private businesses in Lahore should immediately halve their staff’s presence at offices.

Seeking a traffic plan, the court ordered authorities to set up an emergency helpline for the citizens facing traffic issues.

Air pollution has worsened in Pakistan in recent years, as a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalesce into stagnant clouds of smog.

On Wednesday, Lahore was declared the most polluted city in the world having an air quality ranking of 348, well over the hazardous level of 300, according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has constituted five anti-smog squad comprising representatives from the environment department, police, city administration, LESCO, WASA, and MCL to conduct a weekly inspection of all industries in Lahore and to take stern action on violations.

Besides this, environment department in collaboration with SUPARCO is launching a pilot project in Lahore to develop different types of environmental models to address the root causes of pollution, said the Punjab Environment Minister.

This article was first published on Nov 18 2021 in Business Recorder.