A man cleans a road amid heavy fog in Lahore, capital of Pakistan's Punjab province on Jan. 19, 2021. Dense fog shrouded several cities in Pakistan. (Photo by Sajjad/Xinhua)

The Pakistani city of Lahore was declared the most polluted city in the world by an air quality monitor on Wednesday, as residents choking in acrid smog pleaded with officials to take action.

Lahore had an air quality ranking of 348, well over the hazardous level of 300, according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform.

"Children are experiencing breathing diseases... for God's sake, find a solution," laborer Muhammad Saeed told AFP.

Air pollution has worsened in Pakistan in recent years, as a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalesce into stagnant clouds of smog.

Lahore, a bustling megacity of more than 11 million people in Punjab province near the border with India, consistently ranks among the worst cities in the world for air pollution. 

In recent years, residents have built their own air purifiers and taken out lawsuits against government officials in desperate bids to clean the air.

"We are poor people, can't even afford a doctor's charges," shopkeeper Ikram Ahmed told AFP.

"We can only plead with them to control the pollution. I am not a literate person, but I have read that Lahore has the worst air quality and then comes India's Delhi. If it continues like this, we will die."

Although there has been criticism, the Pakistani government has been working to fight against air pollution. According to a report by the Xinhua News Agency in February, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a countrywide spring tree plantation drive in urban areas to curb the growing smog pollution in the country.

Agencies