Air pollution in Lahore reached hazardous levels on Monday. At 8am the city's air quality index (AQI) stood at 535, while concentrations of PM2.5, fine particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, climbed to 343 micrograms per cubic metre.
A global air-quality monitoring ranking on Monday morning placed five Punjab cities among Pakistan's six most polluted. Gujranwala topped the list with an AQI of 606, followed by Lahore at 509, Faisalabad and Multan at 310 each and Sialkot at 260, with Peshawar sixth at 216. Later hourly readings put Gujranwala as high as 675.
Surge in crop fires
The deterioration coincides with a sharp rise in agricultural fires across Punjab. NASA satellites detected 13,241 fire spots in Pakistani Punjab between October 1 and 29, 4.2 times the 3,158 seen in Indian Punjab. About 92 percent were on farmland and likely linked to crop-residue burning. Okara recorded the most with 2,144, followed by Gujranwala with 1,011 and Nankana Sahib with 1,003.
The Punjab government says October 2026 was Lahore's cleanest October in five years, with an average AQI of 180.5. An independent analysis, however, found that after adjusting for weather the improvement was only about four percent, and PM2.5 levels exceeded the national daily limit on every day of the month. Pollution is forecast to rise further by Wednesday, November 4.