Lahore’s air remained hazardous on Wednesday morning, with the air quality index at 443 at 7am, according to Airleaf’s reading from 35 ground monitoring stations. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was the main pollutant. The reading came a day after Lahore topped IQAir’s global ranking of major cities for a second day running, with an AQI of 263 on Tuesday.

A new report by the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI), released on Tuesday, questions the Punjab government’s explanation that Diwali fireworks across the border in India were behind the city’s poor air. Satellite data recorded 16,714 farm fires in Punjab between 1 October and 9 November, and 18,825 fires in total across the province, 89 per cent of them likely crop-residue burning. Lahore’s average PM2.5 over the period was 126 micrograms per cubic metre, eight times the World Health Organization’s guideline, and above national standards on all 40 days with valid data.

The report found the evidence did not support blaming fireworks in India for the poor air after Diwali. Lahore’s average PM2.5 between 6pm on 8 November and 1am on 10 November was 234 micrograms per cubic metre, only 10 per cent higher than the same hours over the previous seven days. The report noted that telling firework smoke apart from farm-fire smoke would need chemical analysis of the particles, which Pakistani monitoring stations do not measure. It also forecast hundreds more fires upwind of Lahore over the next two days — 642 on 10 November, 668 on 11 November and 617 on 12 November.

The smog has now cost Lahore an international match. The Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Tuesday that the second Test against Sri Lanka, scheduled for Lahore from 17 to 21 November, has been moved to Rawalpindi because of the air quality. Both Tests of the two-match series will now be played at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, with the dates unchanged.

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