The journalists and citizens came down hard upon the state minister for saying that the data about pollution was over-estimated.
ISLAMABAD: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Nov 1st, 2019) The minister of state for climate change Zartaj Wazir Gul's message that Lahore is not at all ranked the most polluted city in the world has not well been received by journalists and activists who are trying to deflect the blame.
In a video message, Zartaj Gul Wazir applauded the province' Environment Protection Agency (EPA) for excellent job.
Zartaj said: " Till now, the government has shut down 261 units of furnace oil in Punjab and 155 in Lahore alone, which were producing a lot of emissions,” she said in a recorded messages, posted on her Twitter account. She said the Punjab government was looking to further shut down 18,000 to 20,000 brick kilns in the province in the coming days.
“ If you check Google maps, 80 per cent of the air pollution is coming from India, and only 20 per cent is from our side," said the minister. She also rejected the air quality data coming in from public initiatives as being “unauthentic”. Do not compare Pakistan to Austria, she said, and other developed countries.
“If look regionally than our environment ministry is working very well. I appeal to the public that only use our data for information. Lahore is not at all ranked the most polluted city in the world.
However, the jouralists opposed her statements and shared data on thier twitter accounts.
The citizens said that Lahore was now very polluted but the government was not doing work. They said these people should tender resignation for not working.
