LAHORE: As Lahore continues to be either on top or among the top three most polluted cities due to large-scale smog, the government on Thursday pledged to implement the smog lockdown by all means.

While allowing the city markets and shopping centres to open on Friday (today), the government, however, announced the complete closure of the markets and many other businesses on Saturday and Sunday.

On the other hand, the ongoing city festival at the Racecourse Park has also been suspended for three days starting from Friday, according to official sources.

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“The PHA will announce the resumption date for the festival soon,” said an official. He urged the people to avoid visiting the festival venue in the next three days, as there would be no activity related to the festival during the lockdown days.

According to a government notification, the markets will be completely closed on Saturday and Sunday. The banks, government and private offices, all educational institutions and parks will remain closed on Nov 10, 11 and 12.

Lahore Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa said at a meeting that police had been assigned the task to keep the traffic limited as much as possible.

Since the marriage halls have been declared exempted from the lockdown, the divisional administration has termed it mandatory for all those attending marriages/weddings at venues to have invitation cards.

He said the government had also requested the traders to voluntarily close markets on Friday if they want, as the notification will be applicable for them for Saturday and Sunday only. All takeaways will be completely closed, but home delivery is allowed.

According to him, the citizens in case of any issue may contact the DC office.

On the other hand, the AQI index of Lahore surged to 422, placing it second on the list of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world.

According to IQAir, Delhi stood at first on Thursday with 521 AQI US, followed by Lahore with 422, Kolkata-253, Dhaka-219, Karachi-168, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia)-155, Jakarta-155, Wuhan-149, Mumbai-132, and Doha-122.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2023