Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday asked the Punjab government to adopt a comprehensive smog control policy, directing the federal and provincial authorities to work on short, medium, and long-term plans to deal with the issue.

He made these remarks while chairing a meeting on prevailing pollution-related issues in the country.

He directed the authorities to install a robust air quality control system, get major industrial units like brick kilns and steel furnaces relocated outside the cities with effective restrictions, and incentivize the use of quality fuel and gradual replacement of vehicles with electric vehicles.

“We must incentivise industry for shifting their units in the cities to outside and the use of modern technology for environment safety,” he said.

PM for a strategy to insulate cities from pollution

He also stressed the need for dialogue with regional countries to protect the environment through collective efforts.

The Prime Minister said that the big cities must be saved from pollution as it has a huge social and economic cost.

"Although pollution is a silent killer but saving the environment had not been a priority of the past governments. Now there is no room for negligence anymore,” he added.

Air pollution has worsened in Pakistan in recent years, as a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalesce into stagnant clouds of smog.

Lahore, a bustling megacity of more than 11 million people in Punjab province near the border with India, consistently ranks among the worst cities in the world for air pollution.