AFTER a three-month summer break, Lahore’s school gates officially reopened on Aug 24, bringing back the hurried footsteps of children racing to beat the morning bell and bursts of laughter as they spill through the school gates in the afternoon. With them have come pickups and rickshaws, bulging with children and their oversized schoolbags, motorcycles weaving through traffic, often carrying three or more students at a time, and cars — so many cars — streaming across the city, sometimes carrying just one child. Buses carrying 20 or more children, meanwhile, are a rare sight.

Undoubtedly, beneath the bustle of the daily school run lies the palpable innocence of childhood — as well as the uneasy reality of the world they are growing up in. The cars, motorcycles and rickshaws ferrying children to and from school add to smoke that, come autumn, will mingle with dust, and turn the skies grey with smog.

To mitigate the harm of the annual smog, the Punjab government announced the Pre-Smog Action Plan 2026 (July-September 2026), to “ensure timely preparedness, prevention and mitigation of smog during the upcoming smog season”. Broadly, and rightly, the action plan calls for stronger Environment Protection Agency........

© Dawn