Artificial rain was used for the first time in Pakistan

Artificial rain was used for the first time in Pakistan on Saturday in a bid to combat hazardous levels of smog in the mega city of Lahore, the provincial government said. 

In the first experiment of its kind in the South Asian country, planes equipped with cloud seeding equipment flew over 10 areas of the city, often ranked one of the worst places globally for air pollution.

The "gift" was provided by the United Arab Emirates, said caretaker chief minister of Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi. "Teams from the UAE, along with two planes, arrived here about 10 to 12 days ago. They used 48 flares to create the rain," he told media.

The UAE has increasingly using cloud seeding, sometimes referred to as artificial rain or blue skying, to create rain in the arid expanse of the country. The weather modification involves releasing common salt -- or a mixture of different salts -- into clouds.

The crystals encourage condensation to form as rain. 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.