KARACHI: The city of Karachi became the ‘most polluted’ city in the world on Saturday in terms of air quality on the Air Quality Index (AQI), according to the Swiss company IQAir that monitors air quality.

However, by 10pm Lahore overtook it once again, while Karachi stood fourth in the AQI.

Meteorologists said “very unhealthy” pollution level would continue for another day or two.

Health experts also warned that such weather conditions could lead to several infections and that people should avoid exposing themselves to such atmosphere.

Pak Weather Network, a private weather forecasting and broadcasting source, shared updates on its social media platform and weighed air quality to ranging between 391-250 AQI [air quality index] by the sunset.

“We don’t any see any chance that situation will improve to a large extent until a good western rainy system intervenes,” Syed Owais Haider of Pak Weather Network said.

The experts termed the current weather condition an impact of change in the wind direction and sounded confident that although it was unhealthy, it was not a new or abnormal phenomenon.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2023