LAHORE: Recent claims that Lahore’s air is now “cleaner” and staying below 300 on the Air Quality Index (AQI) are facing scrutiny as independent data continues to show hazardous smog and unanswered questions over how the Punjab government measures pollution.
An Instagram post by lifestyle outlet GT Magazine earlier this week said that “a year ago, Lahore’s air never gave relief” but that today the city’s AQI “stays below 300, cleaner, clearer, and healthier”. The post linked this change to the Punjab government’s “long-term plan”, implying that the city had finally moved out of its worst smog phase.
Air quality experts, however, point out that an AQI of 201–300 is classified as “very unhealthy” and anything above 300 is “hazardous” for all residents, not just sensitive groups. In health terms, “below 300” does not mean clean air, it simply means pollution is slightly less extreme than during the most severe smog episodes.
On Friday morning, the independent monitoring platform IQAir showed Lahore’s real-time AQI well above 400, placing it firmly in the “hazardous” band. At around 10am, the site reported an AQI in the mid-400s with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations more than 30 times higher than the World Health Organisation guideline.
Historical data underline that Lahore is still in a prolonged smog crisis even if some peaks this November are lower than last year’s extremes. One analysis of November 2024 reported that the city’s AQI stayed in the hazardous range for nearly two weeks and spiked above 1,100 on 14 November, far beyond this year’s readings.
At the same time, another dataset tracking monthly averages suggests that Lahore’s November 2025 AQI so far remains deeply “unhealthy”, with a provisional average around the mid-200s compared to 184 in November 2024. This indicates that the overall pollution burden this month is still high and in some metrics worse than last year, even if there have not yet been the same ultra-extreme daily spikes.
The Punjab Environment Protection and Climate Change Department (EPCCD) has shifted to publishing prominent pop-ups on their website based on eight-hour “daytime” averages from 8am to 3pm. Recent official forecasts for Lahore on 12–14 November projected average AQI bands of 270–320 or 300–350 for that daytime window, keeping the headline number around or just below the 300 mark.
These website pop-ups do not show pollution levels before 8am and after 3pm, when smog often thickens as temperatures drop and emissions stay trapped near the ground. Residents checking only the EPCCD pop-up can therefore see a single “average AQI” number in the low-300s or high-200s while real-time monitors elsewhere in the city show hazardous spikes during late night and early morning hours.
This reporting practice has drawn criticism in the wake of a wider controversy over the province’s monitoring network. At the end of October, environmental activists and data analysts accused the Punjab government of turning off most of Lahore’s official AQI stations after 10pm to “lower the average”, with one widely shared post claiming that eight out of ten monitors were shut beyond that hour.
Soon after the backlash, the Punjab government acknowledged “disruption” in its air monitoring system and said that a technical fault was being fixed. Officials insisted that the issue was being resolved and maintained that the authorities were committed to publishing reliable data.
In a separate statement to local media, an EPCCD official categorically rejected the allegation that monitors had been deliberately switched off. “Neither monitors were shut down nor was data lost for [the] said period,” the official said, arguing that the system had continued to function and that critics were misreading the data feed.
Independent platforms stress that transparency is crucial because Pakistan still relies heavily on non-government sensors and foreign missions for real-time PM2.5 readings. IQAir notes that much of the country’s live air-quality information comes from community monitors and the US diplomatic network rather than domestic agencies, making open access to all available data essential for public health decisions.
Health bodies warn that even when Lahore’s AQI slips under 300, residents remain at significant risk. Studies and advisories issued during last year’s smog emergency reported that AQI levels above 300 were associated with sharp spikes in respiratory and cardiac illness, and that values in the 200–300 range still required masks, curtailed outdoor activity and special protection for children, the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions.
The Punjab government has announced a series of measures this season, including earlier closing times for markets and wedding halls and a crackdown on smoke-emitting vehicles and industrial polluters. Officials argue that these steps, along with campaigns against crop-residue burning, have helped keep the worst smog episodes shorter than in previous years.
Yet daily bulletins from both official and independent sources continue to list Lahore among the world’s most polluted major cities, with AQI readings frequently above 200. On several days in October and November 2025, the city ranked in the top tier of global pollution hotspots, underscoring how far it still is from anything that could reasonably be called “clean air”.
The picture that emerges is one where some indicators can support carefully worded claims of “improvement” but not sweeping statements of victory over smog. Daytime averages under 300, lower peaks than last year’s record-breaking 2024 crisis and new enforcement measures represent relative progress, yet Lahore’s residents continue to breathe air that remains firmly in the unhealthy to hazardous range for much of the day.
In that sense, the narrative that Lahore’s smog “stays below 300” is both technically rooted in certain official averages and misleading when presented as proof that the city’s air is now clean. The data suggests that the real test will be whether authorities move towards full 24-hour transparent reporting and sustained reductions that bring AQI readings into genuinely safe territory, rather than celebrating marginal improvements at still-dangerous levels.
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