Islamabad, 4th December 2025 : Chairing the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, Senator Sherry Rehman opened Thursday’s meeting with a strong call to action on Pakistan’s escalating smog and air pollution crisis.
The meeting began with a presentation on smog by Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency —smog was described as a severe form of air pollution that becomes more intense during the winter.
Senator Rehman expressed strong disappointment over the lack of credible data, incomplete statistics, and unverified numbers.
“Pollution is a serial killer, it kills more Pakistanis annually than terrorism, latest WHO figures show 256,000 annual deaths. It is very unfortunate that the Ministry of Climate Change and EPA could not make a credible presentation on the subject after 3 months of notice from the Standing Committee in Senate. The Clean Air Policy made in 2023 was both not updated nor referenced.”
She added that Lahore now shares rankings with Delhi in global pollution indices, with toxic air reducing life expectancy by 3.7 to 4.6 years.
Pakistan remains the third most polluted country in the world
Throughout the meeting, Senator Rehman repeatedly questioned the credibility and preparedness of the Environmental Protection Agency’s presentation:
“There are no stats, no numbers, no data. You’re unable to give a proper presentation.This is not credible—you have jumped straight to mitigation without explaining the problem.This is a kindergarten level presentation. I will not review something like this again.”
When briefed that only 800 vehicles were inspected out of 50,000, Senator Rehman expressed concern at the extremely low enforcement. She also questioned why Islamabad has only one air quality monitoring station, stating that “an air monitor should be installed every two kilometres.”
Senator Rehman shared some key statistics “Smog affects 11 million children under five in Punjab’s worst-hit areas. Children breathe twice as fast as adults, making them more vulnerable to respiratory disease. Air pollution costs Pakistan $22 billion annually, nearly 6.5% of GDP according to World Bank.”
Senator Rehman noted with interest that transportation is now the single largest contributor, adding that dust—a major pollutant in Lahore—remains overlooked.
Punjab’s DG EPA briefed the committee on their smog “war room,” low-cost sensors, and enforcement measures.
The province reported:
* Punjab’s source apportionment study shows:
* 83.15% transport,
* 9.07% industry,
* 3.9% agriculture,
* 3.6% waste burning,
* 0.14% commercial,
* 0.11% domestic sources.
* 178 private low-cost sensors installed
* 8005 industrial furnace feeds monitored live
* AI-based systems under development for automated pollution alerts
* 44 air quality monitoring stations across the province
On the use of expensive mist machines (“artificial rain” systems), Senator Rehman questioned their effectiveness:
“This is very expensive technology, and the impact is not very high.”
Moreover, Senator Rehman questioned why brick kilns were being demolished rather than transitioned to zig-zag technology, as decided earlier at the federal level: “These are low-income groups. Instead of abolishing them, support them toward cleaner technology.”
The Committee also discussed public health impacts with NIH:
* Elderly, children, and those with cardiovascular or pulmonary diseases are most at risk.
* Respiratory infection spikes remain unexplained.
Senator Rehman noted “Influenza vaccines and testing kits were unavailable in ICT until recently.” She questioned the Ministry of National Health Service’s role:
“Do you have any power to enforce anything?What is your ministry doing? What is your work exactly?You couldn’t even tell me your mandate despite spending 14 billion annually.”
Balochistan’s EPA DG identified brick kilns, crushing plants, deforestation, dust, and transportation as major contributors. Senator Rehman requested clear data on total crushing plants and expressed dissatisfaction at the lack of quantifiable numbers.
Senator Sherry Rehman directed revised, data-backed presentations from Sindh and Balochistan, a full, credible plan for Karachi, Verified statistics and proper air quality monitoring frameworks and a clear breakdown of enforcement mechanisms and health impacts
Concluding the meeting, Senator Rehman stated: “This reflects poorly on all of us. Pakistan’s pollution crisis requires urgent, credible, science-backed action. We cannot continue with unprepared presentations when lives and public health are at stake.”
The meeting was attended by Senator Shahzaib Durrani, Senator Waqar Mehdi, Senator Khalida Ateeb, officials from MoCC&EC, NIH, Pakistan EPA, Punjab EPA, Sindh EPA and Balochistan EPA