Many initiatives, though well-intentioned, have failed to escape the cycle of subsidy dependency, bureaucratic inefficiency, and political vulnerability
LAHORE: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-25 June 2025) In Pakistan’s public sector, welfare delivery has historically been synonymous with subsidies, bailouts, and fiscal dependence. For decades, institutions ranging from commodity boards to welfare companies survived largely on annual budgetary handouts, struggling to deliver sustainable impact to ordinary citizens. Many initiatives, though well-intentioned, failed to escape the cycle of subsidy dependency, bureaucratic inefficiency, and political vulnerability. Against this backdrop, the emergence of the Punjab Sahulat Bazaars Authority (PSBA) marked a radical departure — an institutional breakthrough that has since influenced the very DNA of governance reform in Punjab.
At the center of this transformation is Naveed Rafaqat Ahmad, the civil servant and strategist widely credited with conceiving and executing Pakistan’s first statutory, subsidy-free welfare authority. His leadership not only transformed the Punjab Model Bazaars Management Company (PMBMC) into the legally empowered PSBA, but also introduced a new paradigm of public service delivery: welfare at the doorstep, subsidy-free, digitally enabled, and financially self-sustaining.
This article examines the pioneering contributions of PSBA under Ahmad’s leadership, the measurable significance of its model, and how its innovations have since been replicated in other major provincial programs such as Maryam Ki Dastak (doorstep delivery of government services) and the Free Medicine Delivery Project of the Health Department. Together, they demonstrate not just the originality of Ahmad’s work, but its field-wide impact — evidence directly aligned with the USCIS standard of “original contributions of major significance.”
From Experiment to Exemplar: Birth of a Subsidy-Free Authority
For years, the Punjab Model Bazaars Management Company (PMBMC) operated as a Section 42 company, running a handful of bazaars that provided consumers with access to essential goods. Though it offered some price relief, it remained small-scale, subsidy-dependent, and administratively limited. Naveed Rafaqat Ahmad envisioned a different path.
He recognized that bazaars, if properly structured and legislated, could serve as a market anchor, stabilizing prices for millions while also empowering micro-vendors through regulated stalls and predictable access. His vision culminated in the Punjab Sahulat Bazaars Authority Act, 2025, which transformed PMBMC into PSBA — a statutory authority with full legal standing, fiscal autonomy, and operational independence.
The results were dramatic: from just 20 bazaars under PMBMC, PSBA expanded to 105 bazaars across Punjab, with an additional 14 under construction in cities including Mandi Bahauddin, Sharaqpur, Wazirabad, Jaranwala, Muzaffargarh, and Khanewal. No other welfare body in Pakistan had previously achieved this level of structural and geographic expansion without subsidies.
The Core Innovation: Welfare Without Subsidy
PSBA’s most revolutionary contribution is its subsidy-free business model. Where other welfare institutions — such as the Punjab education Endowment Fund (PEEF), Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), and Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF) — rely heavily on recurring government transfers, PSBA sustains itself entirely through:
• Regulated stall rentals (Rs. 8,000–15,000/month including utilities).
• Transparent service fees (digital home delivery, vendor logistics).
• Bulk procurement economies that allow cost savings to be passed on to citizens.
• Solarization of bazaars reducing monthly energy bills from Rs. 1 million to Rs. 100,000.
The Authority’s financial results speak volumes: a net surplus of 5.4% in 2025, a Debt-to-Asset ratio of just 0.15, equity comprising over 85% of assets, and unqualified external audits confirming transparency and compliance.
For the first time, Pakistan witnessed a welfare authority that not only survived but thrived without subsidies. This is a clear original contribution of major significance to the field of governance and welfare economics.
Social and Economic Impact
PSBA’s impact is most tangible at the family level. Each bazaar hosts about 100 stalls, each stall employs two individuals, and each worker supports a household of six. By this math:
• The 14 new bazaars under construction will create 2,800 direct jobs, sustaining 16,800 family members.
• The full grid of 105 bazaars sustains 21,000 direct jobs, supporting 126,000 people across Punjab.
In addition to livelihoods, PSBA bazaars anchor prices at 10–30% below open-market rates, directly easing inflationary pressures. They function as both welfare outlets and inflation monitoring systems, producing daily commodity data that policymakers use for real-time decision making. No other peer institution provides this dual function.
Platform for Micro-Enterprise
PSBA also redefined how small vendors participate in the economy. By offering secure, transparent stalls with predictable costs, the Authority transformed informal sellers into formalized micro-enterprises. Vendors gain customer access, legal recognition, and even creditworthiness through their regulated presence.
This micro-enterprise ecosystem is itself a field-defining innovation, unmatched by peers like PSDF or PPIF, which contribute indirectly to human capital but do not create structured, daily platforms for enterprise growth.
Recognition and Benchmarking
Independent audits by Baker Tilly (2025) ranked PSBA the #1 welfare institution among 14 peers, with scores of:
• 90/100 in financial sustainability,
• 84/100 in governance quality, and
• 82/100 in service delivery.
These objective benchmarks confirm that Ahmad’s model was not only functional but superior across multiple governance dimensions.
The Replication Effect: Inspiring Maryam Ki Dastak and Free Medicine Delivery
The true measure of field-wide significance is not whether an innovation succeeds internally, but whether it reshapes how others operate. PSBA’s pioneering “doorstep delivery” of subsidized essentials created the template now replicated by Punjab’s two largest social initiatives:
1. Maryam Ki Dastak — Delivering over 70 government services (domiciles, certificates, tax payments, vehicle registrations) directly to citizens’ homes via trained facilitators, a mobile app, and GPS-tracked logistics. Within its first year, it expanded to 40 districts and processed more than 300,000 service requests. This initiative explicitly mirrors PSBA’s home delivery system, but applies it to government documents instead of groceries.
2. Free Medicine Delivery Project — Patients with chronic illnesses such as cancer, hepatitis, diabetes, and cardiac conditions now receive a two-month supply of free medicines at their doorsteps, supported by the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS). Complementing this, “Clinic on Wheels” mobile units provide consultations, diagnostic tests, ultrasounds, and medicines in underserved areas. This too directly replicates PSBA’s doorstep supply chain, expanding it into healthcare.
Both programs represent the diffusion of PSBA’s innovation into new policy domains. The logic is identical: take the state to the citizen, not the citizen to the state. Where PSBA pioneered home delivery of affordable food and essentials, the Punjab government has now extended the same model to legal documents and healthcare.
Conclusion
The journey of PSBA under Naveed Rafaqat Ahmad represents one of the most transformative governance reforms in Pakistan’s recent history. By turning a small subsidy-dependent company into a statutory, subsidy-free authority, he proved that public welfare can be delivered sustainably, digitally, and at scale.
Its measurable impacts — jobs, inflation control, enterprise creation — are profound. But its true legacy lies in the fact that its model has been replicated across sectors. The Punjab government’s Maryam Ki Dastak and Free Medicine Delivery initiatives stand as living proof that Ahmad’s innovations are not confined to one authority, but have reshaped the field of welfare delivery in Pakistan.
In academic, policy, and financial terms alike, this represents an original contribution of major significance. It is a field-defining achievement recognized by audits, endorsed by legislation, cited by policymakers, and now replicated as a governance blueprint for the province and beyond.
