LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday sought compliance reports from all the deputy commissioners in Punjab on the implementation of a judicial commission’s recommendations for steps to control smog.

       Justice Shahid Karim was hearing a petition filed by the Judicial Activism Panel (JAP) on the provincial government’s failure to appropriately deal with the environmental issues.

       Representing the petition, advocate Azhar Siddique contended that the government showed a cavalier attitude to the environmental issues, particularly the impact of its many ‘development’ schemes, which contributed huge amounts of dust to air. He pointed out that the World Health Organisation (WHO) ranked Lahore in the top most polluted cities of the world due to heavy smog.

       The lawyer said a court-appointed commission had pointed out negligence on part of the authorities to control environmental pollution and to comply with the directions issued by the court.

       He prayed to the court to summon details of measures taken by the government to address the prevailing condition of smog in the whole province.

       He also sought strict action against the industrial activities for violating the pollution charge activities as per the Pollution Charge Industry Rules, 2017.

       The judge sought a compliance report from the DCs by Nov 15.

       Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2021