Outrage as minister claims Lahore’s air quality is not that bad

The minister of state for climate change has blamed neighboring India for sending a toxic haze of smog to Punjab.

In a video message on Thursday, Zartaj Wazir Gul, the junior minister, first applauded the province’s environment protection agency (EPA) for a job well done.

“Till now, the government has shut down 261 units of furnace oil in Punjab and 155 in Lahore alone, which were producing a lot of emissions,” she said in a recorded messages, posted on her Twitter account.

Moreover, the Punjab government is looking to further shut down 18,000 to 20,000 brick kilns in the province in the coming days, she added. “A deadline has yet to be decided. But if you check Google maps, 80 per cent of the air pollution is coming from India, and only 20 per cent is from our side.”

The minister dismissed the air quality data coming in from public initiatives as being “unauthentic”. Do not compare Pakistan to Austria, she said, and other developed countries.

“If look regionally than our environment ministry is working very well. I appeal to the public that only use our data for information. Lahore is not at all ranked the most polluted city in the world.”

However, for the third day this week, Lahore, has recorded “hazardous” levels of toxic smog.

The minister’s message was not well received by journalists and activists, who insist that she is trying to deflect the blame.