Pakistan, Nov. 3 -- At eight on Monday morning, Lahore's Air Quality Index stood at 535, with fine-particle pollution reaching 343 micrograms per cubic metre. Gujranwala fared even worse, recording 606 in a morning reading. Another winter, another poisonous morning, and millions of Punjab's residents left to contend with air that has become a serious threat to their health.

Only days earlier, the Punjab government had celebrated Lahore's cleanest October in five years. The irony should not be lost on anyone. The Pakistan Air Quality Initiative found that PM2.5 concentrations had indeed declined by 27 per cent compared with October 2025. Once weather conditions were accounted for, however, the improvement shrank to just four per cent. Pol...