LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday sought details of the decisions taken by the Punjab chief secretary to avert smog in the coming winter season.

Justice Shahid Karim was hearing a petition seeking a ban on operation of brick kilns and crops burning in the province when a law officer stated that several decisions had been made at a meeting headed by the chief secretary.

He said a ban had been put on burning of stubble while brick kilns owners were warned of closure if they did not switch to zigzag technology.

Petitioner’s counsel Abuzar Salman Niazi pointed out that there were only two brick kilns in the province running on zigzag technology.

He said the main contribution to the smog were the brick kilns as they failed to use fuel-efficient technology, burning of crops stubble, emission from factories and the polluting vehicles. He said the government should give subsidy on zigzag technology to encourage the brick kilns.

He pointed out that as per a report of food and agriculture organisation of the UN, Pakistan suffered one of the highest death tolls in the world from air pollution in 2015. He argued that it was highly important to stop functioning of brick kilns, halt burning of stubble and control emission from factories in the entire province to prevent the imminent threat of smog in the coming winter.

He said the government needed to take immediate and effective precautionary measures to avoid smog crisis in coming months.

Justice Karim deferred hearing for Friday (today) and directed the law officer to submit details of the decisions made by the government.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2019