Islamabad police fine drivers and impound vehicles in a new crackdown to combat toxic smog, largely blamed on the city’s transport sector
ISLAMABAD: Authorities have launched a major crackdown on polluting vehicles entering the Pakistani capital as the city’s winter smog crisis worsens.
Police checkpoints are stopping trucks and cars, issuing fines and threatening to impound vehicles that emit excessive diesel fumes.
Truck driver Muhammad Afzal was fined 1,000 rupees (RM13.50) this week after police said his exhaust was releasing thick smoke.
“This is unfair,” Afzal told AFP, claiming his vehicle had just been repaired in Lahore.
Dr Zaigham Abbas of Pakistan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned that non-compliant vehicles would be barred from entering the city.
Technician Waleed Ahmed, inspecting vehicles at a checkpoint, compared old vehicles to humans, stating those past their “life cycle” emit dangerous smoke.
Islamabad’s air quality has deteriorated significantly, registering seven “very unhealthy” days for PM2.5 particulates so far in December.
According to IQAir, the city’s annual average PM2.5 reading for 2024 was 52.3 microgrammes per cubic meter, surpassing Lahore’s 46.2.
Both figures are far beyond the World Health Organization’s safe level of five microgrammes.
A recent report by the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative blamed the transport sector for 53% of Islamabad’s toxic PM2.5 particles.
“The haze over Islamabad… is the exhaust of a million private journeys — a self-inflicted crisis,” the research group stated.
EPA chief Nazia Zaib Ali announced that over 300 fines were issued in the first week of the crackdown, with 80 vehicles impounded.
“We cannot allow non-compliant vehicles at any cost to poison the city’s air,” she said.
The city has begun setting up emissions inspection stations, issuing green stickers to vehicles that pass.
Resident Iftikhar Sarwar, 51, said he now needs allergy medication due to the poor air, a problem also affecting his family.
Anthropologist Sulaman Ijaz expressed concern for his daughter’s future, stating clean air is “her basic right.” – AFP
