Schools shut in Pakistani city amid high smog

A pall of smog descended on Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore on Wednesday, enveloping its historic monuments in a haze, leaving people with itchy eyes and forcing authorities to suspend school, according to local media reports. 

In recent years, smog has become a problem for some cities in Pakistan and neighboring India due to industrial and transport pollution and practice of farmers to burn stubble crop. 

Earlier this week, Indian authorities had to declare a public emergency after pollution level in New Delhi became so high that experts said it was like smoking up to 50 cigarettes a day. 

In Lahore on Wednesday, micro air pollutants reached Air Quality Index (AQI) level of 500 - a situation where it's considered hazardous for humans to breath. 

People on Twitter complained that they were having difficulty breathing and many wondered why the authorities weren’t declaring an emergency to address the issue. 

There was concern that some politicians were giving a political color to an environmental issue by blaming India for the smog.

Just this week three Pakistani teenagers took the government to court over high pollution, drawing attention to a recurring problem that hasn't been a high priority for officials despite several warnings from health practitioners.