Markets to be shut at 10pm

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday ordered the closure of all markets and restaurants in the provincial capital by 10pm on the weekdays as part of measures to reduce smog.

LHC Justice Shahid Karim gave relief for an hour on the weekends to the restaurants, allowing them to operate till 11pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The markets will remain open on Sunday, but their timing will be from 2pm to 10pm.

The court directed the education department to ensure implementation of its order of observing three weekly off days. Any school found violating the notification will be immediately sealed.

The Punjab government had earlier announced the closure of schools in Lahore for three days every week in compliance with the court orders.

Justice Karim was hearing petitions about curbing smog and pollution, as well as saving groundwater from wastage.

In earlier proceedings, the authorities concerned had informed the court about the notifications under which all schools would remain closed for three days and private offices for two days in a week.

The government, complying with the LHC order, notified that all government and private schools in the Lahore district should remain closed on every Friday and Saturday in addition to the weekly holiday on Sunday owing to the aggravated smog levels.

Justice Karim had asked the government to notify the closure of schools in the provincial capital for at least three days in a week.

In view of the prevailing worst situation, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority had also issued a notification, announcing closure of private offices of Friday and Saturday every week.

The order will remain in force from December 7 to January 15.

The notification added that staffers might work from home during the period.

The court had also increased the fine to Rs200,000 from the earlier Rs50,000 against those found involved in burning crop stubble across the province.

The registration of first information reports (FIRs) was not the only solution to stopping stubble burning, the judge had observed.

A member of an environmental commission had told the court that 153 incidents of stubble burning had been reported in the province in five days. Justice Karim remarked that majority of the incidents of stubble burning were being reported from Okara.

The Okara deputy commissioner had told the court that criminal cases had been registered against 151 people found involved in setting ablaze remnants of crops.

The LHC had also directed the Punjab government to impose a smog emergency and call a meeting to take appropriate precautionary measures to control the smog before the conditions worsened.

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi imposed an environmental emergency in Lahore and other cities after declaring the smog a calamity.

Along with the ban on burning crop residues across the province, the chief minister ordered effective implementation of a plan prepared to reduce smog.

According to an official statement, the chief minister said action should be taken to control the factors that caused smog.

He said officers of the environment, transport and industries departments, as well as the district administration should be active in the field to implement the plan.

He said failure to implement the existing standard operating procedures (SOPs) to reduce smog would not be tolerated.

The court observed that smog had reduced to some extent after the earlier court orders.

Justice Karim maintained that the implementation of the court orders had to be monitored.