The Lahore High Court has ordered authorities to close down restaurants that do not have parking spaces for their visitors.

Justice Shahid Karim issued the order while hearing petitions seeking measures against smog on Friday.

He told the authorities to act against illegal parking in the city and seal restaurants that do not have designated spaces to park vehicles.

The justice ordered Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to frame rules to curb parking on the service roads for the smooth flow of traffic.

In the context of the growing smoke emissions, the judge observed that illegal parking caused traffic jams and became one of the key reasons for the spread of smog.

The court also ordered to protect old trees to improve the air quality of the city. It noted that there were rampant violations of traffic rules which needed to be addressed and summoned an implementation report of the court order by the relevant departments in the next hearing.

Lahore was ranked as the worst city on the world air quality index in 2022, according to an annual global survey by a Swiss maker of air purifiers.

Air degradation is a cause of respiratory ailment for the inhabitants especially in the time of winter as smoke emission from nearby factories pollutes the environment.

Experts believe that crop stubble burning practice after the wheat harvest triggers smog formation in India and Pakistan.