{"id":55758,"date":"2024-11-11T14:06:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T09:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=55758"},"modified":"2024-11-11T14:06:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T09:06:31","slug":"all-outdoor-activities-banned-in-punjab-districts-to-battle-rising-smog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/pakistan\/all-outdoor-activities-banned-in-punjab-districts-to-battle-rising-smog\/","title":{"rendered":"All outdoor activities &#8216;banned&#8217; in Punjab districts to battle rising smog"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"story-detail\">\n<p>LAHORE: As smog worsened in several Punjan districts, the Punjab government has restricted all outdoor activities in <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/pakistan\/smog-chocks-islamabad-punjab-as-multan-remains-most-polluted-today\/\">pollution-hit districts<\/a> including Lahore and Multan, effective from today.<\/p>\n<p>The provincial government implemented the lockdown-like measure after the toxic air spread from Lahore to Multan, Gujranwala, and Faisalabad districts, reaching hazardous levels.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the authorities had <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/education\/punjab-govt-closes-schools-colleges-up-to-12th-grade-due-to-smog-crises\/\">closed schools<\/a> in several Punjab cities to protect students from toxic smog and banned entry into parks, zoos, and other open-air public places last week in an effort to minimize the cause and effect of air pollution.<\/p>\n<p>An official notification issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated, &#8220;<span class=\"a\">The average AQI of Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, and Gujranwala <\/span><span class=\"a\">districts has crossed the critical limit of 500 which is alarmingly hazardous for human <\/span><span class=\"a\">health and wellbeing.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The notification signed by Director General EPA Dr. Imran Hamid Sheik wrote &#8220;S<span class=\"a\">ection 6(1) (t) of the Punjab Environmental Protection Act 1997, <\/span><span class=\"a\">empowers EPA to take <\/span><span class=\"a\">all necessary measures for the protection, conservation, rehabilitation, and improvement of the environment, prevention, and control of pollution and promotion of sustainable development.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" tabindex=\"0\" title=\"Restriction on Commercial Markets and Outdoor Activities in Districts of Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujrawal\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/790675025\/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-6OEq8aacV2PxoU3YpeGa\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-auto-height=\"true\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7068965517241379\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Taking the measures, EPA ordered the c<span class=\"a\">losure of <span class=\"l8\">all outd<span class=\"l6\">oor activities including outdoor\u00a0sports events, exhibitions and<\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\"> festivals, and outdoor dining of restaurants with the <\/span><span class=\"a\">exemption <\/span><span class=\"a\">of religious gatherings<\/span><span class=\"a\"><span class=\"l7\"><span class=\"l9\"><span class=\"l6\"><span class=\"l8\"><span class=\"l10\">.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"story-detail\">\n<p>Besides the suspension of all outdoor activities, markets and shopping malls have been directed to close by 8 pm.<\/p>\n<p>However, religious congregations, unavoidable religious rites including the last rites, funeral prayer, burial, and related events have been exempted from the ban.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff2\"><span class=\"a\"><span class=\"l6\"><span class=\"l7\"><span class=\"l8\"><span class=\"l9\">However,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\"> pharm<span class=\"l12\">acies, m<span class=\"l11\"><span class=\"l9\"><span class=\"l7\">edical facilit<span class=\"l6\">ies, medical laboratories, v<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\">accination c<span class=\"l6\">ent<span class=\"l8\">ers, petrol pum<span class=\"l12\">ps, oil depot<span class=\"l7\">s, tandoors, bakeries, g<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\">rocery stores, dairy shops, sweet shops, v<\/span><span class=\"a\"><span class=\"a\">egetable\/fruit shops, and meat shops have been <\/span><\/span>exempted from the restrictions.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"a\">E-commerce\/postal<\/span><span class=\"a\"> services, utility services,<\/span><span class=\"a\"> and\u00a0<span class=\"l9\"><span class=\"l7\">grocery\/<span class=\"l10\">pharmacy <\/span><\/span><\/span>sections of large departm<span class=\"l9\">ental stores will remain<\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\"> open <\/span>after the 8 pm deadline, the notification added.<\/p>\n<div class=\"story-detail\">\n<p>&#8220;Any other exemption, if deemed necessary, may be given by the Deputy Commissioner of the concerned district,&#8221; the notification read.<\/p>\n<p>The ban on outdoor activities will come into effect from today (November 11) till November 17, and any contravention of this order will be punished under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.<\/p>\n<p>The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that further <span class=\"a\">instructions in this regard will be issued on<\/span><span class=\"a\"> November 17.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Residents in Lahore have been battling smog for weeks as the AQI remained hazardous on Monday, again ranking first in the most polluted big cities in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The toxic air has floated to other districts of the province, as on Monday, Multan topped the country with the worst air quality index of 924, hovering above the &#8220;hazardous&#8221; category.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"story-detail\">\n<p>Besides Lahore and Multan, a thick layer of smog shrouded Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, and several other major cities of Punjab.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAHORE: As smog worsened in several Punjan districts, the Punjab government has restricted all outdoor activities in pollution-hit districts including Lahore and Multan, effective from today. The provincial government implemented the lockdown-like measure after the toxic air spread from Lahore to Multan, Gujranwala, and Faisalabad districts, reaching hazardous levels. Earlier, the authorities had closed schools [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":55762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13446,2],"tags":[144,23876,22695],"class_list":["post-55758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-pakistan","tag-lahore","tag-multan-smog","tag-punjab-smog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55763,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55758\/revisions\/55763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}