ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab will develop an advanced air quality management system with the help of China to combat an enduring smog and pollution crisis, a statement from the provincial chief minister’s office said on Wednesday. 

Smog had choked Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province for weeks last month, sickening nearly two million people and shrouding vast swathes of the province in a toxic haze. 

On Wednesday, Lahore, the capital of Punjab, was listed as the world’s sixth most polluted city by Swiss air monitor IQAir, and its PM2.5 concentration, which comprises air particles that damage lungs, was 20.5 times the World Health Organization annual guideline value. The province had closed down schools and offices for days last month, banned outdoor activities and shortened timings for restaurants, shops and markets in a bid to control smog.

“Agreement reached to develop an advanced air quality management system in Punjab with China’s collaboration,” the ruling PML-N party in Punjab said in an X post after Sharif met Chinese environment authorities. “Decision to establish the ‘Beijing-Punjab Clean Air Joint Working Group’ has been made.”

The officials also discussed wildlife conservation and plantation projects, with Sharif saying Punjab would leverage China’s expertise and experience in implementing an e-transport system in the province.

China has taken significant steps to combat its worsening air quality, declaring a “war on pollution” in 2015. Key measures include reducing coal consumption, increasing renewable energy capacity, and improving air quality monitoring systems. 

However, researchers said last month China’s emissions of carbon dioxide were on course to rise slightly this year, despite rapid progress on renewables and electric vehicles, putting a key 2025 climate target further out of reach.

China wants to cut the amount of CO2 it produces per unit of economic growth by 18 percent over the 2021-2025 period, but it fell further behind this year as a result of rising energy demand, said the Helsinki-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in its annual assessment.

KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: Demonstrators who have been blocking the Karakoram Highway linking the remote northern Gilgit-Baltistan region to the rest of Pakistan to protest the construction of a dam said on Wednesday they would allow the road to be opened for 15 days, giving the government until then to meet demands. 

The government plans to build the Diamer-Bhasha dam on the River Indus between Kohistan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Diamer district in Gilgit Baltistan by 2028-29. It is estimated that plans to build the dam and reservoir will displace more than 4,200 families in nearby areas. Once constructed, the dam will submerge a large section of the Karakoram Highway to China, Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) estimates.

For the last two days, hundreds of protesters have been blocking the KKH in the Diamer district in protest against WAPDA, whom they say has not paid them compensation for land they gave up for the construction of the dam. 

Three rounds of negotiations with the government had failed, Shahid Iqbal, a member of the protesters’ core committee, told Arab News.

“Though all negotiations with the government couldn’t reach a conclusion, we don’t want to disturb the public, that’s why we are opening the road to facilitate commuters,” Muhammad Iqbal, the leader of the protesters’ core committee, told Arab News on Wednesday via telephone from the region.

“And on assurances of the senior superintendent of police, Sher Khan, speaking on behalf of the government, we have extended the deadline for 15 days. The local administration has promised to resolve our issues after consulting with the general manager of WAPDA within 15 days.”

Iqbal said the protest would resume after 15 days if the government failed to meet demands, including the resettlement of those displaced by the dam’s construction as well as financial compensation for affectees. 

Speaking to Arab News, the spokesperson of the Gilgit-Baltistan government, Faizullah Faraq, said the government would consider all “valid demands” of protesters. 

“Officials from WAPDA, the district administration, and police are representing the government side, while five members of [dam] affectees are taking part in the negotiation process,” Faraq told Arab News.

He said Diamer-Bhasha dam affectees had protested multiple times in the past but their latest move to block the KKH had left “hundreds of passengers stranded on both sides.”

“They have presented their demands and the government will leave no stone unturned to fulfil their valid demands,” the official added. 

The $12-$14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam should generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and a vast new reservoir would regulate the flow of water to farmland that is vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather patterns. With a gross water storage capacity of 8.1-million-acre feet (MAF), the dam is expected to help irrigate 1.23 million acres of additional land. 

China and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2016 for Beijing to help fund and develop Pakistan’s Indus Basin dams, though no timelines were released. Pakistan estimates there is 40,000 MW of hydro potential.

Pakistan has been keen for years to build a cascade of mega dams along the Indus flowing down from the Himalayas, but has struggled to raise money from international institutions amid opposition from its nuclear-armed neighbor India.

Those ambitions have been revived by China’s Belt and Road infrastructure corridor for Pakistan, a key cog in Beijing’s creation of a modern-day Silk Road network of trade routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.