‘Time is running out’ as govt, provinces, ADB and experts join push for cleaner air
ISLAMABAD (August 18, 2026) Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Dr Musadik Masood Malik on Tuesday called for urgent, coordinated and measurable action to tackle Pakistan’s worsening air pollution, warning that “time is running out” and clean air must be treated as a basic requirement for human health and dignity.
Addressing the opening of a three-day Stakeholders Workshop for Supporting the Development of the Pakistan National Clean Air Policy Implementation Plan, organised by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the minister said Pakistan must move beyond policy commitments and translate its National Clean Air Policy (NCAP) into a time-bound and actionable implementation plan.
Representatives of federal and provincial governments, development partners, academia, researchers and civil society are participating in the workshop, which runs from Aug 18 to 20.
“Time is running out; air quality is not a secondary environmental luxury; it is a primary indicator of human survival and dignity,” Dr Malik said, urging stakeholders to make implementation of the clean-air agenda a priority.
He said air pollution had become one of the world’s most serious environmental and public-health challenges, with the World Health Organisation estimating that 99 per cent of the global population lived in areas where pollution exceeded its recommended limits.
Pakistan, he said, faced an especially serious challenge, with recurring winter smog affecting Punjab and other areas. Citing World Bank analysis, he said average PM2.5 exposure across Punjab was around 52 micrograms per cubic metre, more than ten times the WHO guideline, while annual averages of 110 to 130 micrograms had been measured in central Lahore.
“This is not an abstract global problem for Pakistan. It is a reality that millions of our citizens experience every year,” he said.
The minister said Pakistan adopted its first dedicated National Clean Air Policy in 2023, following decades of environmental legislation and air-quality initiatives. The country’s first National Air Pollutant Emission Inventory, prepared in 2022 with development-partner support, provided an important evidence base for the policy.
He said the workshop would help validate the country’s air-quality management landscape, identify implementation gaps, establish priority actions and clarify institutional responsibilities, financing and investment opportunities.
An independent review of the NCAP has also been commissioned by ADB in collaboration with the ministry to examine governance arrangements and sectoral measures and help develop a more effective, measurable and legally enforceable implementation framework.
Dr Malik said the government was also considering a National Clean Air Secretariat within the ministry to strengthen coordination and implementation.
Pak-EPA calls for stronger mechanism
Pak-EPA Director General Syed Abrar Hussain said Pakistan had evolved from addressing air pollution mainly through general environmental regulations to establishing a dedicated national clean-air framework.
He said the Federal Cabinet unanimously approved the NCAP on March 9, 2023, following consultations with provinces, AJK, GB, government institutions, civil society, academia and the private sector.
The policy seeks a 38 per cent reduction in PM2.5 emissions by 2030 and 81 per cent by 2040, compared with the baseline. It identifies five priority sectors — transport, industry, waste, agriculture and households — with measures including Euro-5 and Euro-6 fuel standards, enforcement of industrial emission standards, prevention of open burning of municipal and agricultural waste, and promotion of low-emission cooking technologies.
Mr Hussain said implementation required stronger federal-provincial coordination because air-pollution monitoring, control and mitigation had largely been devolved to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
He supported reviewing the existing committee-based mechanism in favour of a lean, robust and science-based implementation secretariat focused on clean air for all, while stressing the need for regular air-quality data, annual updating of the Air Pollutant Emission Inventory, resource mobilisation and sustained public communication.
Public awareness key to clean-air agenda
Ministry Media Spokesperson and Climate Policy Advocacy Expert Mohammad Saleem Shaikh said tackling air pollution required coordinated policy action alongside stronger public awareness and advocacy.
He said air pollution should not be viewed merely as a seasonal smog problem as its consequences extended to public health, the environment, economic productivity and climate resilience.
“People cannot support solutions to a problem they do not fully understand. We need to make clean air a public conversation that connects scientific evidence and government policy with people’s everyday lives,” he said.
Mr Shaikh said government institutions, provinces, researchers, development partners, industry, civil society and media needed to work together, while air-quality data and scientific evidence should be translated into information that citizens could understand and act upon.
“Public awareness must become part of implementation, not an afterthought,” he said, adding that communication should explain both the sources and impacts of pollution and the policy measures needed to reduce it.
He said stronger public engagement would also help build support for necessary measures concerning fuel quality, industrial emissions, waste and crop-residue burning and cleaner household energy.
The workshop is expected to help shape a national implementation plan with clear actions, institutional responsibilities, financing arrangements and timelines. The ministry reaffirmed its commitment to coordinating implementation across all provinces, including GB and AJK.