Nawaz Sharif has long been a believer in normalising diplomatic and trade ties with India. He is perhaps the only major political figure in Pakistan openly advocating for better relations with India.
So it was not particularly surprising when his daughter Maryam Nawaz, also incidentally the chief minister of Punjab, expressed an interest in pursuing better India-Pakistan relations by reaching out to her Indian counterpart.
What was just a little confusing was why she reached out to the Chief Minister of Indian Punjab over the issue of air pollution. Lahore is currently engulfed in a blanket of toxic air the likes of which has not been seen since 2016 when the issue of smog first visibly emerged in the city. It is not just the capital of the province that is struck. Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Sialkot, and a number of other cities are facing the same problem. It is a problem that extends beyond Pakistan, and is felt acutely in South Asia.
In 2023, Bangladesh recorded the worst air quality of 134 countries monitored by the Swiss climate group, IQAir. Pakistan and India were close behind, with the report showing that South Asia suffers from the worst pollution in the world overall. But the smog issue is India is most felt far away from Punjab, with New Delhi and the Haryana region much bigger problem areas than Indian Punjab.
So why would Maryam Nawaz’s counterpart be interested in helping her tackle a problem that is affecting the other side of the border? Why would he want to ban crop burning in his province, possibly upsetting his rural votebank, when it will not do him much good? The answer is he most likely is not. Which is probably why there has been no response from Chandigarh.
The idea of climate diplomacy is well and good. The issue is it is not the best approach to dealing with a problem that has become life-and-death for anyone living in Lahore. Smog is actually a very simple problem to understand and cure. Many cities around the world have done it for a very long time, and there is a roadmap. So what is it? The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account. Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan
