Stakeholders have urged the government to devise a holistic, data-oriented and long-term approach to counter air pollution.
“The last few days have been devastating for people residing in Lahore. All the advertisement and promotional campaigns of the Punjab Government have failed to arrest the worsening trend,” said Tauqir Ahmed, an industry veteran and a road safety expert.
He stated that successive governments over the past many years have resorted to cosmetics rather than substantive measures. “In the fight against smog, almost all the initiatives taken by the government so far are disproportionately targeted towards the transport sector. The transport sector is part of the problem, but definitely not the source of the problem as it is being projected,” said Tauqeer.
He added that all the scientific studies available to date prove it as Pakistan’s First Biennial Update Report (BUR-1), a report jointly prepared by the UN and the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), states that the transport sector is responsible for 10.14% of total GHG emissions in Pakistan.
“Among the transport sector, Light Duty Trucks contribute 4.2%, cars 3.1% and motorcycles contribute merely 0.9% in the total GHG emissions of the country,” he stated while referring to the report.
As part of NEV Policy 2025-30, the federal government has recently announced the Pakistan Accelerated Vehicle Electrification (PAVE) scheme. Under the scheme, more than Rs100 billion will be utilised on vehicle subsidies. Of this Rs100 billion subsidy program, Rs85 billion has been specifically earmarked for motorcycles only.
“Recent electrification of buses in Punjab, Islamabad and Karachi is a step in the right direction. But imagine the state of apathy where more than Rs85 billion is being spent on a sector whose contribution is less than 1% in the total GHG profile of the country.
“For a resource-starved country like Pakistan, this is blatant exploitation of resources for optics only. Pictures do look rosy with little to no effect on air pollution,” he remarked.
