Punjab points to post-Diwali winds from India while satellite data count 16,714 crop fires on this side of the border.
LAHORE: Lahore’s air pulled back from the hazardous extremes recorded at the start of the week, yet the provincial capital stayed at the top of global pollution tables on Tuesday, and an independent analysis found its fine-particle levels have averaged roughly eight times the World Health Organization guideline since the start of October.
Swiss monitor IQAir ranked Lahore the most polluted major city in the world on Monday, when its index reached 590 and an hourly reading touched 647. The city held the same position on Tuesday at 263, a level classed as “very unhealthy”.
Readings varied widely from one neighbourhood to the next. On Monday, Allama Iqbal Town logged 1,033, the CERP office station 864 and Burki Road near Paragon City 748. By Tuesday morning Gulberg II stood at 639, Syed Maratib Ali Road at 475, Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate at 470, Iqbal Town at 342, DHA Phase V at 255 and Askari X at 192.
The crisis was not confined to the capital. Raiwind registered 688, Multan 655 and Faisalabad 600 on Monday, and by Tuesday Multan had climbed to 971 and Bahawalpur to 796.
Government says field operation cut readings by half
The Punjab Environment Protection and Climate Change Department said Lahore’s average index fell from 489 at 9am on Monday to 232 by 3pm, a drop of about 53%, with all 11 of its monitoring stations improving. Egerton Road went from 500 to 167 and GT Road from 500 to 172.
Department secretary Silwat Saeed credited coordinated enforcement and real-time monitoring, while officials said anti-smog guns were stationed on high-traffic corridors and mist-sprinkling covered about 640 km of designated routes, building on the road-washing drive launched last week.
Environmental Protection Agency Director General Abdullah Nayyar Sheikh said quick response units were chasing satellite-detected fire alerts and that inspections of factories and brick kilns had been stepped up. The department did not release inspection, fine or arrest figures for this week, although Lahore police had booked 65 smog violators in a single sweep late last month.
The cross-border question
Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, who oversees the environment portfolio, said pollutants had been carried into Punjab on light easterly winds from India after Diwali celebrations on Nov 8. A provincial assessment issued that day had warned that firework smoke could reach Lahore within five to 13 hours and counted 2,347 crop-burning incidents in Indian Punjab up to Nov 4, of which 1,081 were in Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Amritsar.
Readings Aurangzeb shared from across the border were stark. Khem Karan, about 49 km from Lahore, recorded 631, Amritsar 514 and Faridkot 1,588, with 24 of 34 monitored sites in Indian Punjab in the hazardous band and seven above 1,000.
Independent data released on Tuesday by the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI) lend weight to the direction of the wind. Forty-five of 48 back-trajectories traced to Lahore, Kasur and Sialkot crossed Indian territory within 12 hours. Lahore’s PM2.5 averaged 234 micrograms per cubic metre from 6pm on Nov 8 to 1am on Nov 10, about 10% above the previous week.
PAQI stopped short of pinning the spike on fireworks, however, noting that separating firework smoke from crop smoke requires chemical markers such as potassium, strontium and barium, which Pakistani stations do not measure. Adding those tracers would give Lahore hard evidence to take into any regional discussion on transboundary air.
The home front
The same report counted 16,714 likely crop-residue fires in Pakistani Punjab between Oct 1 and Nov 9, roughly unchanged from last year and 8% above the 2020-2025 average. Sheikhupura (2,559), Jhang (2,192), Okara (2,062), Hafizabad (1,893) and Gujranwala (1,417) accounted for 54% of detections.
Lahore’s average PM2.5 over the period was 126 micrograms per cubic metre and breached the national 24-hour standard on all 40 days with valid data. That is still 11% lower than the same stretch of 2025, a gain officials can point to after months of pre-season curbs on burning and kilns.
On days when fires burned upwind, Lahore averaged 175 micrograms against 93 on other days, though PAQI cautioned that stagnant weather also traps pollution and the link does not measure how much crop burning contributes.
Health advice and what comes next
Aurangzeb urged children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with heart or lung conditions to stay indoors, keep doors, windows and ventilators shut and suspend morning walks, jogging and cycling. Motorists were told to keep windows up with air-conditioning on recirculation, and households to stop burning rubbish and leaves.
Outdoor activities have been barred at educational institutions since late October, but no closure order had been issued as of Wednesday.
Relief may be close. The provincial government expected improvement from Nov 11, and the Met Office has forecast rain for Lahore on Nov 12 and 13 that the Punjab Disaster Management Authority said should thin the smog, even as it sharpens the cold.
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