Maryam Nawaz Sharif bats for for ‘smog diplomacy’ with India

The chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab Province says she will write to her Indian counterpart (Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann) to reiterate her commitment to “smog diplomacy. The AQI of Lahore has touched an alarming level of 708.

The chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab Province, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, has called for cross-border cooperation with Indian Punjab to control stubble burning, and the resultant smog.

Maryam Nawaz Sharif during an event in Lahore on Wednesday said Pakistan wants to have open a diplomacy with the Indian government as it concerns people’s health. (HT FILE)

Addressing an event in Lahore on Wednesday, she suggested that she may write to her Indian counterpart (Bhagwant Mann) to reiterate her commitment to “smog diplomacy”. Along with the North Indian states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, Pakistan is also grappling with farm fires. The air quality index (AQI) in Lahore, the capital city of Punjab Province, has touched an alarming level of 708.

As per the World Health Organisation, the AQI level in Lahore, termed the world’s most polluted city, is 86 times more than the permissible limits. “We have to open a diplomacy with the Indian government... this is not a political matter, it concerns the health of people living on both sides of the border,” she is heard saying in a video being circulated on social media.

Punjab chief secretary KAP Sinha said so far no such communication has been received by the state government. “We are doing our best. Top agencies of the Centre such as the ministries of forest and environment, cabinet secretariat, national green tribunal, human rights commission, besides the Supreme Court and the state government, are making best efforts to control farm fires,” he said.