With smog intensity escalating in Lahore at the end of October, affecting its 13 million residents, the Punjab government imposed a “green lockdown” and set up a “smog war room.”

The authorities have also imposed a "health emergency" in Lahore and Multan districts to combat dense smog blanketing the province of about 130 million population for the last few weeks

One doctor compared breathing in Pakistan's toxic air to smoking "dozens of cigarettes a day" as Lahore is the world's most polluted city this week.