Pakistanis Fight for Clean Air with Monitors and Lawsuits Amid Record Pollution
World
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Moneycontrol•21-01-2026, 15:35
Pakistanis Fight for Clean Air with Monitors and Lawsuits Amid Record Pollution
- •Pakistani citizens are taking the fight for clean air into their own hands using air monitors and legal action as pollution hits record highs.
- •Engineer Abid Omar founded Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI) in 2016, deploying 150 monitors nationwide, with data feeding into IQAir, which ranked Pakistan as the third most-polluted country in 2024.
- •PAQI data was crucial in a 2017 Lahore high court case, leading to smog recognition as a public health danger and prompting the Punjab government to deploy its own monitoring stations.
- •Academics Umair Shahid and Taha Ali established Curious Friends of Clean Air, deploying 3D-printed monitors in Islamabad to raise awareness and influence community behavior.
- •Climate campaigner Hania Imran sued the state in December 2024 for the "right to breathe clean air," advocating for cleaner fuel and sustainable development.
Why It Matters: Citizens in Pakistan are actively combating severe air pollution through independent monitoring and legal challenges.
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