One early morning in November 2024, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Multan, the 5th-most populated city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, reached a peak of 2,135—well past the safety threshold of 100. In response, the city went on lockdown, closing parks and other public spaces until the middle of the month.
Nearby Lahore, the province’s capital, was similarly blanketed in a thick layer of smog. Hospitals saw patients—many of them children, the elderly, and young men—coming in with eyes reddened from irritation, difficulty breathing, and bouts of coughing. The city government was forced to limit the mobility of its population, shutting down outdoor areas and public utility vehicles that left passengers exposed to the poisonous air, such as tuk tuks.
According to Asghar Satti, the National Coordinator of the Pakistan Association of People Living with HIV (APLHIV), the smog also caused significant impediments to their support programs.
“In the first quarter of 2024, we sent out food shipments, nutritional support to almost 9,000 PLHIVs, but because of the smog and smog issues, the delivery was delayed for more than one month,” he shares. “That was something beyond our control, because you were not permitted to go out at night time. The visibility was okay around 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., so you had only three to four hours of mobility.”