Pakistan is among the countries that have a very low share of global environmental impacts but are affected the most by climate change. The government is taking necessary practical steps to control pollution and improve the environmental situation. While speaking at a World Environment Day ceremony organised by IUCN in Lahore, Senior Minister of Punjab Marriyum Aurangzeb stated that the province has progressed extraordinarily in environmental protection over the last two years. The government has installed environmental control systems in over nine thousand industrial units and implemented QR codes on over four thousand brick kilns to eliminate the chances of smog and reduce air pollution. All these appear to be excellent measures on paper, but more apparent outcomes of the bad air crisis have yet to be seen in the coming months when smog covers the provincial skies.

The installation of modern environmental control systems in industrial units by the provincial government of Punjab under the leadership of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz is now being presented as a great success. If 9,000 industrial units have actually adopted these systems, then this is a positive step. However, the real question here is not about adopting modern technologies but about their continuous functioning. Past experiences depict that industrial owners install advanced technological systems out of fear of legal action or fines but fail to operate them to save on electricity costs or simply due to negligence.

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