Pakistan's Punjab declared a health emergency due to toxic smog on Friday, banning construction, shutting schools for another week and moving universities online, with a three-day lockdown possible, the province's senior minister said on Friday.

Pakistan's most populated province of Punjab on Friday extended school closures in smog-hit major cities by a week, as the country battles record

With smog intensity escalating in Lahore at the end of October, affecting its 13 million residents, the Punjab government imposed a “green lockdown” and set up a “smog war room.”

The government of Pakistan’s most polluted province has launched a new policy to address a protracted smog crisis, after the world’s worst air shuttered schools and saw 900 people seek hospital treatment in a single day.

The authorities have also imposed a "health emergency" in Lahore and Multan districts to combat dense smog blanketing the province of about 130 million population for the last few weeks

Pakistan's province of Punjab set up a "smog war room" to tackle severe pollution, officials said, as poor air quality turned its capital of Lahore into the world's most polluted city and forced the closure of some educational institutions.

A Pakistani province declared a health emergency Friday due to smog and imposed a shutdown in two major cities. Smog has choked Punjab for weeks, sickening nearly 2 million people and shrouding vast swathes of the province in a toxic haze.

The absence of a top provincial politician at the time the country is battling an air emergency involving toxic smog has sparked a debate in Pakistan. Authorities in Punjab province announced a health emergency and said they are mulling a three-day lockdown as the air crisis ahead of winter has trapped dust,