One point mentioned the article which I believe warrants further explanation is the role of the vehicles in all this. It is correct that due to the fuel quality and older Euro 2 technology, the pollution levels produced are higher. Unfortunately, the rabbit hole goes deeper than that.

The issue arises when we look at the age of the vehicles on the roads in Pakistan. Due to the ever rising costs of vehicles, we are seeing older and older cars still being kept on the roads.
We regularly see thirty to forty year old cars being kept on the roads because the people have no other options. Pollution be damned! And if we look at the average age of public buses in almost all cities, they were old when we were still kids. 😄

The average age of the vehicles on most Pakistani roads is older than emission standards themselves. Not only that, due to age, such old engines become even more polluting.

With no cheap cars or any affordable financing options available, we are stuck in this vicious cycle; and it has become a major contributing factor to all this pollution.

1. Smog and air pollution is an extreme issue in Lahore, but other parts of Punjab are also extremely affected, Last time Multan had a twice worse AQI than Lahore. Karachi’s air quality is as bad as Lahore’s, but due to the higher temperature year-round, the visible effect of pollution is less noticeable but it doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting human health.
2. In addition to clean-burning fuels and clean-burning engines, the term “cleaner technologies” it also includes those technologies which reduce/completely avoid combustion or at least displace combustion to a power plant further away from dens human population. Examples include hybrids, PHEVs, EVs and renewable resources such as rooftop solar to charge them. So it is a little shortcoming in the article that the poorly-formed EV Policy, slow shift towards EVs and the availability of only the ultra-expensive EVs hasn’t been criticized, multiple other articles and comments on CSPk have raised awareness about it.
3. While the government has tried (and failed) to introduce Euro5 fuels and Euro 5 road vehicles, there is/was no Euro 5 mandate for agricultural engines (used in tractors, tube wells), heavy machinery (construction and mining) and power generation.
4. The insurance companies (who perform health insurance, vehicle insurance) and ride-hailing companies (Uber, Careem, Bykea, Yango, InDrive) can use their influence to steer the market towards cleaner vehicles, there are examples of such contribution from other countries, but not in Pakistan.
5. Lastly, the imported air pollution from East Punjab stubble-burning is also a major contributor to poor AQ in Pakistan.