Polluting factories will now be sealed, Lahore High Court orders

The Lahore High Court ordered the sealing of polluting factories while hearing petitions filed to remedy smog.

Justice Shahid Karim of Lahore High Court heard the petition of citizen Haroon Farooq, Commissioner Lahore Muhammad Ali Randwa appeared in the court.

The court remarked that now it seems we are going on the right path, on which the Commissioner Lahore said that action will be taken against smoke-emitting vehicles indiscriminately.

Justice Shahid Karim said that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) is sleeping, we will wake them up.

Commissioner Lahore Muhammad Ali Randwa told the court that we have also instructed the traffic police to stop the smog spreading vehicles.

If a vehicle is causing smog, take pictures of it, the court remarked, adding that from next year we will have to take major steps early, these two months are very important.

Commissioner Lahore said that we have taken many steps for the trend of cycling, we have talked to the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) to build a track for cycling, we will try to ensure that people cycling. Get discounts on hotels.

Lahore High Court said that you should involve the private sector in this, we can resume cycling in these 5, 6 months.

Commissioner Lahore told the court that we will now advertise in the newspaper that cutting trees is a crime.

Later, the court ordered the sealing of the polluting factors.

The court ordered that factories emitting black smoke be sealed, and not de-sealed until they give an affidavit.

The court said after giving an affidavit that if there is a repeat violation, the factory will be demolished.

The court adjourned the hearing of the case till November 7.

It should be noted that on November 1, the Lahore High Court had said that black smoke emitting factories should be sealed and they should not be de-sealed and all schools and colleges were directed to inform the children of black smoke emitting factories.

Justice Shahid Karim expressed concern over the smog situation and said that the government is responsible for the smog situation.

On the same day, the caretaker government of Punjab imposed a smog emergency across the province by making masks mandatory for students in all government and private schools for a month to deal with smog in the province.

Mohsin Naqvi said that every measure that is humanly possible will be taken to reduce smog, all relevant departments should work actively for anti-smog.