Pakistan province declares smog health emergency, locks down 2 cities

A Pakistani province declared a health emergency on Friday due to smog and imposed a shutdown in two major cities.

Smog has choked Punjab for weeks, sickening nearly 2 million people and shrouding vast swathes of the province in a toxic haze.

A senior provincial minister, Marriyum Aurangzeb, declared the health emergency at a press conference and announced measures to combat the growing crisis.

Time off for medical staff is cancelled, all education institutions are shut until further notice, restaurants are closing at 4pm while takeaways are available until 8pm.

Authorities are imposing a lockdown in the cities of Multan and Lahore and halting construction work in those two places.

“Smog is currently a national disaster,” Aurangzeb said. “It will not all be over in a month or a year. We will evaluate the situation after three days and then announce a further strategy.”