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       The Punjab government on Friday barred the public from entering public parks, zoos, playgrounds, and museums amid deteriorating air quality across the province.

       A day ago, Lahore’s air pollution reached unprecedented levels, ranking it as the world’s most polluted city for the past 48 hours, as dense smog blankets major districts of Punjab. The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) soared to alarming heights, surpassing 1,000 in some areas, a level deemed hazardous for public health and safety.

       Friday’s notification put a “complete ban on public entry in all parks (public & private), zoos, playgrounds, historical places, monuments, museums and joy/playlands” from November 8 (today) till 17.

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       The ban encompasses Punjab’s districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Nankana Sahib, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, Narowal, Faisalabad, Chiniot, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Multan, Lodhran, Vehari and Khanewal.

       “Any violation [of] this order shall be punished U/S 188 P.P.C,” the notification stated.

       It also went on to note that the Punjab government is “striving hard to control all possible intrinsic factors which cause air pollution and deteriorate the quality of ambient air.”

       Last week, the Punjab government declared smog a calamity, and the provincial administration notified a host of measures, such as vacations for disabled children and a ban on all activities “causing or leading to smog formation” to improve the hazardous air quality across the province, particularly in Lahore.

       The provincial government also imposed a green lockdown in several areas of Lahore it considered “smog hotspots’, but enforcement remained lax at best on the first day. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has now declared smog a calamity under Section 3 of the Punjab National Cala-mities (Prevention and Relief) Act, 1958.

       On Wednesday, the government had closed all public and private schools and colleges across 18 districts of the province from Nov 7 to 17 to protect students and staff from exposure to the toxic air.