Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced that Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja will be awarded a Tamgha on March 23, recognising her central role in designing and executing the digital architecture behind the government’s petrol subsidy scheme, a Pakistani Rupees 75 billion initiative that has reached over 10.85 million registered citizens through an entirely digital delivery mechanism. The Prime Minister made the announcement while hosting a tea gathering for the ministers and officials who drove the programme, describing the scheme as a risky undertaking that faced considerable challenges at the outset but was ultimately delivered through coordinated effort across federal and provincial governments. Notably, the recognition goes to the IT Minister rather than the Petroleum Minister, an unusual distinction that reflects how decisively the digital delivery layer determined the scheme’s success.
The petrol subsidy programme was designed to deliver a monthly subsidy of Pakistani Rupees 2,000 directly to eligible citizens, targeting owners of motorcycles, Qingqi motorcycles, rickshaws, and vehicles with engines up to 800cc, a demographic that represents a significant share of Pakistan’s urban and peri-urban transport users and for whom fuel costs represent a disproportionate financial burden. The scale of the digital rollout the scheme achieved is significant: nearly 96 percent of all motorcycle riders have benefited from the initiative, with 10.20 million vouchers issued from a registered base of over 10.85 million citizens, 27 million tokens issued in total, 19.4 million tokens used to purchase subsidised petrol, and approximately 9.28 million users having accessed the scheme a second time, indicating sustained repeat engagement rather than one-off uptake. By comparison, an earlier initiative launched in February managed to issue only 1.3 million tokens at its peak, making the current programme’s reach a significant improvement in execution scale and digital outreach.
Prime Minister Shehbaz credited the success of the programme’s digital infrastructure to the coordinated contributions of multiple institutions, specifically acknowledging the Petroleum Division, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, the State Bank of Pakistan, National Database and Registration Authority, PTA, and local telecom operators for their technical contributions to the scheme’s delivery architecture. He also extended recognition to the provincial chief ministers and their teams for providing the administrative and financial cooperation needed to extend the programme’s reach across the country’s diverse geographic and demographic landscape. Beyond Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the Prime Minister acknowledged the contributions of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, and Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani, with officials from other participating departments to receive shields in recognition of their roles.
The Prime Minister also confirmed that the petrol subsidy programme will continue its operations, signalling that the Pakistani Rupees 75 billion allocation represents an ongoing commitment rather than a time-limited initiative. For the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, the recognition attached to the scheme’s success adds a concrete, nationally visible case study to the ministry’s record of digital governance delivery, alongside the broader digital transformation agenda that has included the fifth generation spectrum auction, the National Digital Masterplan, and a series of e-government service digitisation initiatives across federal and provincial departments.
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