Cabinet backs a programme it says will create 162,000 jobs, adds 10,000 more subsidised tractors and a new Rs60 billion housing tranche, and clears Lahore to co-host the South Asian Games
LAHORE: Punjab’s cabinet has approved the key features of an industrial development and export programme worth Rs1.995 trillion, which the provincial government says will create more than 162,000 jobs by building industrial infrastructure, upgrading manufacturing clusters and processing more of the province’s farm output before it leaves the country.
The plan, presented by Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb at the 37th cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Monday, is billed in the official handout as PIYUT. It assumes Rs1.089 trillion from the provincial government and Rs906 billion from private investors, a split that makes private capital about 45% of the total.
On the government’s own numbers, the programme works out to roughly Rs12.3 million of investment for each job it promises. The handout did not say over how many years the money would be spent, how the provincial share would be financed, or how the private commitments would be secured.
From cutlery labs to mango parks
The programme reads like a map of Punjab’s export economy. It covers industrial estates, cluster development, export competitiveness, value-chain upgrades, farm and livestock mechanisation and public-private partnerships, along with support for existing industries, e-commerce, garments and plug-and-play factory space.
For the province’s traditional export clusters, it promises testing and certification services for leather, footwear and sports goods, sectors centred on Sialkot, Kasur and Lahore, and material-testing laboratories for cutlery, hand tools, ceramics and electric fans, the trades of Wazirabad, Gujrat and Gujranwala. International buyers increasingly demand certified compliance, and exporters have long complained that sending samples abroad for testing adds weeks and cost.
On the farm side, agriculture processing parks are to be built in Sargodha, Khanewal, Okara and Bhakkar. The plan also includes wheat value enhancement, meat and milk value chains, citrus, potato and mango processing, aquaculture, tourism, skills training and export financing for horticulture and floriculture.
The approval follows months of investment courting by Lahore. The province used the 3P Pakistan exhibition in September to pitch its industrial policy, and Chinese state firm PowerChina has expressed interest in energy projects for Punjab’s special economic zones.
The export arithmetic
The timing coincides with an export recovery. Pakistan’s merchandise exports rose 18% year on year to about $2.96 billion in September and reached $8.45 billion in the first quarter of the 2026-27 fiscal year, official figures show. Imports climbed faster, to $19.21 billion in the quarter, leaving a trade gap of roughly $10.8 billion that the government wants export growth to narrow.
The scale of the programme also stands out against the provincial budget. Punjab cut its annual development programme for 2026-27 to Rs752 billion, from Rs1.24 trillion the previous year, to concentrate on finishing projects already under way. The provincial share of PIYUT, at Rs1.089 trillion, is larger than an entire year of that development budget, so its funding schedule will decide how quickly the parks and labs appear.
Tractors, drip lines and Thal
The cabinet approved subsidies for Phase V of the Chief Minister Punjab Green Tractor Programme, with Rs9.5 billion for 10,000 high-powered tractors, or about Rs950,000 per machine. More than 250,000 farmers have applied, the meeting was told. When the Phase V portal opened in September, the high-powered tier covered tractors of 75 to 125 horsepower. Subsidies for another 10,000 low-powered tractors under Phase IV were also cleared, along with a waiver of late registration fees.
Officials told the cabinet that 44,000 tractors had been distributed over the past two and a half years, against 10,000 in the preceding two decades, while about 25,000 had so far reached farmers. The briefing did not reconcile the two figures, which may reflect tractors allotted but not yet delivered.
A separate Rs7.6 billion subsidy will fund drip irrigation, solar power and water storage across 10,000 acres in Mankera and Layyah under an agricultural transformation project for Thal, the sandy desert belt where water is the main constraint on farming. That works out to about Rs760,000 an acre.
The cabinet also approved horticulture authorities in 20 districts, part of the chief minister’s pledge to set up a Parks and Horticulture Authority in every district.
Housing, health and welfare
Under a new tranche of the Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar housing programme, the Bank of Punjab will extend 40,000 loans from a Rs60 billion allocation, an average of Rs1.5 million each. The chief minister rejected a proposal to levy stamp duty on the scheme. The programme had disbursed more than Rs284 billion in interest-free loans to over 217,000 families by mid-October.
Maryam Nawaz ordered immediate payment of outstanding dues needed to make idle medical equipment in public hospitals functional, and the cabinet approved funds to clear essential liabilities of the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department. Six Clinic on Wheels vehicles will be donated to Gilgit-Baltistan and 15 to Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The cabinet extended the Maryam Nawaz Social Security Ration Card Scheme, approved a Rs81.6 million supplementary grant for assistive devices under the “Maryam Ko Batain” helpline, and agreed to set up a Punjab Senior Citizens Council.
What it means for Lahore
Several decisions land directly in the provincial capital. The cabinet approved funds to revamp Lahore Railway Station and to rehabilitate roads in Badami Bagh, the congested wholesale and transport hub north of the Walled City.
Fines under the Punjab Ring Road Authority will rise substantially for speeding, overloading, pedestrian-crossing violations and other offences. Current penalties on the Lahore Ring Road are modest; police there fined two motorists Rs3,600 in a widely shared case in September.
Amendments to an air-quality project will add electric trucks and anti-smog guns as Lahore heads into its winter smog season, and the cabinet approved operating arrangements for 1,500 electric buses in tehsils across the province.
The cabinet also approved hosting the 14th South Asian Games, which are scheduled for April 3 to 11, 2027, in Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar after repeated postponements since 2023. Indian officials have signalled willingness to travel to Pakistan for the event, though participation has not been confirmed.
Security, posts and local polls
The meeting relaxed the recruitment ban for several bodies, including the Suthra Punjab Authority, the Punjab Social Protection Authority, the Border Military Police and Baloch Levies in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur, and the Provincial Intelligence Fusion and Threat Assessment Centre, where 79 posts were approved. It also created 70 posts in a Youth Affairs and Sports project unit, 37 administrative posts at the Punjab Forensic Science Authority and posts for child protection units, and approved new Special Branch offices in Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan.
A cabinet committee will be formed to consult on a date for local government elections. The province has been weighing a move of the polls to April 2027 because of smog and fog concerns, a delay that opposition groups including the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League have urged the Election Commission to reject.
Universities, roads and relief
Other approvals include the Maryam Nawaz Medical College and Teaching Hospital in Mianwali, a Pothohar campus of the University of the Punjab in Gujar Khan, the conversion of the University of Rasul scheme into a university and medical college, and the hiring of teaching interns for government schools. The cabinet cleared an additional 10.5-kilometre ring road in Bahawalpur and a flyover at the Abdul Hakeem railway crossing.
Murree was declared a calamity-hit district so that residents affected in Jheeka Gali can be compensated, and flood-protection and river-erosion works were approved to safeguard farmland and settlements.
The meeting opened with prayers for security personnel killed in operations against militants and for the late mother-in-law of Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb.
The programme’s success will depend on details the handout left out: a timeline, a financing plan for the provincial share, and binding commitments behind the Rs906 billion expected from private investors. Exporters in Lahore and the surrounding industrial belt will judge it by a simpler test, which is whether the promised labs, parks and plug-and-play units open in time to win orders this year.
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