LHC orders demolition of smoke-belching factories amid green lockdown in Lahore

LAHORE : The Lahore High Court on Thursday ordered demolition of smoke-emitting factories.

Justice Shahid Karim issued the order in a written verdict on the petition of Haroon Farooq and others.

The court also ordered stringent action against those involved in burning crop residues.

The LHC sought details of buses being used by schools to pick and drop students.

The judge said teams had been constituted to monitor pollution by factories in Sargodha.

He sought a detailed report on Lahore’s Tollinton Market in next hearing.

SMOG ASSUMES ALARMING LEVEL

Smog situation worsened in several parts of the country, with Lahore once again bearing the brunt of the menace in the last few days.

The average Air Quality Index (AQI) in Lahore was recorded at 208 on Thursday and it was the second worst polluted city.
The Punjab government has made wearing masks mandatory in Lahore and thereabouts. It has banned burning crop residues and refuse in the open.

GREEN LOCKDOWN

On Wednesday, the Punjab Environment Department in a major move to combat smog enforced “green lockdown” in parts of Lahore.

Lahore has been experiencing the worst smog for the last few days and it has aggravated to a level that has touched 708 points on the Air Quality Index (AQI).

The Environment Department on Wednesday issued a notification of the lockdown. Davies Road, Egerton Road, Durand Road and Kashmir Road, along with the areas from Shimla Pahari to Gulshan Cinema and Abbott Road, have been designated as hotspots.

Additionally, the area from Shimla Pahari to the railway station and Empress Road have been declared hotspots, and Queen Mary Road and its surroundings are also marked as polluted zones.

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY

Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz underscored the need for ‘climate diplomacy’ with India to tackle the scourge of smog.

Addressing a Diwali event in Lahore, the chief minister said Pakistan must have diplomacy with India to fight smog in Lahore. “I am thinking of writing a letter to the Indian Punjab chief minister. This is not just a political issue but a humanitarian issue,” she said.

She remarked, “the winds don’t know there’s a border in the middle.”