ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The dense smog, which is hovering over Pakistan especially the Punjab province, will continue to last for next 10 days, an official of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said.
Talking to media, the Director General PMD Muhammad Riaz said that smog will continue to blanket central parts of the Country; however, he added that smog intensity is less in 2017 as compared to last year.
Muhammad Riaz said that only rain can bring the smog to an end.
As per the latest forecast issued by the Met Office, dense foggy/smoggy conditions are likely to occur over plain areas of Punjab and foggy over Upper Sindh, Central and Lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The media reports said that a thick blanket of smog has continued to engulf various parts of Punjab including Lahore while at least 13 persons have so far lost their lives and many suffered injuries in fog-related incidents across the province.
Besides, smoggy conditions have caused Rs 28 billion loss to the national exchequer as several power plants including four nuclear power plants were shut down, causing up to 12 hours outages of electricity and gas.
Talking to media, a Spokesman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) told that several domestic and international flights had to be cancelled while a few were rescheduled.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has written a letter to the Indian Punjab government, asking to stop burning crops etc.
While addressing a Press Conference in Lahore, the Punjab Environment Minister Zakia Shahnawaz declared India responsible for environmental pollution, and said that 35 million tonnes agricultural stubble were burnt in northern India especially Haryana State.
The minister said that wind from the East blew into Pakistan’s Punjab causing thick smog. She admitted that though several factories and traffic also caused the smog.
