A technician examines a vehicle to test its emissions on a road on the outskirts of Islamabad. Photo: AFP
ISLAMABAD:
Truck driver Muhammad Afzal didn’t expect to be stopped by the police, let alone fined, when he drove into Islamabad this week because of the thick diesel fumes coming from his tailpipe.
“This is unfair,” he said after being told to pay 1,000 rupees ($3.60), with the threat of having his truck seized if he did not “fix” the problem. “I came from Lahore after getting my vehicle repaired. They pressed the accelerator to make it release smoke. It is an injustice,” he told AFP.
Checkpoints set up this month are part of a crackdown by authorities to combat the city’s soaring smog levels, with the winter months at their worst due to atmospheric inversions that trap pollutants at the ground level.
“We have already warned the owners of strict action and we will stop their entry into the city if they do not comply with the orders,” said Dr. Zaigham Abbas of Pakistan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as he surveyed the checkpoint on the southeastern outskirts of the capital.
For Waleed Ahmed, a technician who inspects the vehicles at the site, “just like a human being, a vehicle has a life cycle. Those who cross it release smoke that is dangerous to human health”.
Self-inflicted crisis
While not yet at the extreme winter levels of Lahore or megacity Karachi, where heavy industry and brick kilns spew tons of pollutants each year, Islamabad is steadily closing the gap.
So far in December, it has already recorded seven “very unhealthy” days for PM2.5 particles of more than 150 micrograms per day. cubic meters, according to the Swiss monitoring company IQAir.
Intraday PM2.5 levels in Islamabad often exceed those in Karachi and Lahore, and in 2024 the city’s average PM2.5 reading for the year was 52.3 micrograms – exceeding 46.2 for Lahore.
These annual measurements are well above the safe level of five micrograms recommended by the World Health Organization.
Built from the ground up as Pakistan’s capital in the 1960s, the city was envisioned as a model city for the fast-growing nation, with wide avenues and abundant greenery abutting the Himalayan foothills.
But the expansive layout discourages walking, and public transportation remains limited, meaning cars — mostly older models — are essential for residents to get around.
“The capital region is overwhelmingly choked by its transport sector,” which produces 53 percent of its toxic PM2.5 particles, the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, a research group, said in a recent report. “The haze over Islamabad… is not the smoke of industry, but the exhaust of a million private journeys – a self-inflicted crisis,” it said.
Her fundamental right
When EPA chief Nazia Zaib Ali announced the crackdown on December 7, he said over 300 fines were issued at checkpoints in the first week, with 80 vehicles impounded.
“We cannot allow non-compliant vehicles to poison the city’s air and endanger public health at any cost,” she said in a statement.
The city has also begun setting up stations where drivers can have their emissions inspected, with passersby receiving a green sticker on their windshield.
“We were worried about Lahore, but now it’s Islamabad. And it’s all because of vehicles emitting pollution,” said Iftikhar Sarwar, 51, as he had his car checked on a busy road near an Islamabad park. “I never needed medicine before, but now I get allergies if I don’t take a tablet in the morning. The same thing happens to my family,” he added.
Other residents say they worry the government’s measures will not be enough to tackle the worsening winter smog.
“This is not the Islamabad I came to 20 years ago,” said Sulaman Ijaz, an anthropologist. “I feel uneasy when I think about what I will say if my daughter asks for clean air – it is her basic right.”
