LAHORE – Ramzan bazaars in Punjab have always been a massive logistical exercise. For decades, provincial authorities have set up temporary markets across the province to help citizens purchase essential food items at controlled prices during the holy month. Yet the challenge has rarely been limited to establishing the bazaars themselves. The real difficulty lies in managing them effectively.
In previous years, complaints about Ramzan bazaars have often surfaced during the month—sometimes about shortages of commodities, sometimes about vendors charging higher prices than officially notified rates. With dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of markets operating simultaneously across Punjab, ensuring consistent monitoring has never been simple.
This year, the provincial government appears to be trying a different approach to oversight.
During a recent briefing to Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, officials explained that a Central Provincial Control Room has been established at the headquarters of the Punjab Sahulat Bazaars Authority (PSBA). The purpose of this facility is to monitor Ramzan bazaars across the province in real time through a digital surveillance and communication system.
According to the briefing, approximately 1,500 dedicated IP-based cameras have been installed across the Ramzan bazaar network. These cameras will transmit live video feeds to the central control room, where monitoring staff will observe market activity through a wall of nearly 50 large screens.
The intention behind the system is simple but ambitious: to ensure that problems inside the markets can be identified and addressed immediately rather than after delays.
Officials say the cameras will also be connected to the Safe City surveillance infrastructure, allowing district administrations and law enforcement agencies to access relevant footage when necessary. This integration is expected to help in managing crowd control, ensuring security and verifying complaints raised by citizens.
The monitoring system will not operate only during working hours. The control room is expected to remain active 24 hours a day, reflecting the reality that Ramzan bazaars often become busiest in the late afternoon and evening when shoppers prepare for Iftar.
Alongside the camera network, authorities have also introduced a dedicated helpline for consumers visiting these markets.
Citizens who encounter issues—such as prices exceeding official District Commissioner rates or the unavailability of essential commodities—can register complaints through the number 0308-0800222. Officials say this helpline is linked directly to the monitoring system so that complaints can be verified and addressed quickly.
The idea is to create a feedback loop between citizens and administrators. Instead of relying solely on periodic inspections, authorities hope that real-time monitoring combined with public feedback will make the markets more responsive.
Behind this operational framework is the Punjab Sahulat Bazaars Authority, the institution responsible for organising and managing the Ramzan market network this year.
The Authority is currently led by Director General Naveed Rafaqat Ahmad, who has been associated with the expansion of the Sahulat Bazaar model in Punjab over the past few years. The institution itself emerged from the earlier Punjab Model Bazaars Management Company (PMBMC), which primarily operated a limited number of model markets.
The transformation into PSBA expanded the scope of the organisation significantly. Instead of managing only a few urban bazaars, the Authority is now responsible for developing a wider network of regulated markets across the province.
During the past year, the system has grown rapidly. Fourteen new Sahulat Bazaars have been completed and made operational in different districts, while fifteen mobile markets—known as “Sahulat on the Go”—have been introduced in the Lahore Division. These mobile units are designed to bring organised markets to densely populated areas where permanent facilities are not available.
Supporters of the initiative often describe these bazaars as emerging micro-commercial centres. Each market hosts multiple vendors selling vegetables, poultry, groceries and other daily-use items. For small traders and entrepreneurs, these stalls can provide a more structured retail environment than traditional street markets.
Yet the Ramzan operation presents a challenge of a different scale.
Managing a handful of permanent markets is one thing. Coordinating 75 Ramzan bazaars across Punjab simultaneously—while ensuring that items remain available and prices stay below official benchmarks—is a far more demanding task.
The central control room is therefore expected to play a crucial role in this process. Monitoring teams must watch for sudden price increases, supply shortages or overcrowding. When problems appear on screen, local administrators must be contacted immediately to resolve them.
Even with technology in place, however, the complexity of Ramzan markets cannot be ignored. Supply chains must deliver fresh vegetables and fruits daily. Poultry stocks must remain stable. Flour and sugar must remain available throughout the month.
Vendors must also find the system commercially workable. Selling goods below market prices while maintaining reasonable margins is not always straightforward, particularly when wholesale prices fluctuate.
For the leadership of the Sahulat Bazaars Authority, including Director General Naveed Rafaqat Ahmad and his team, the coming weeks will therefore represent an important operational test.
If the monitoring system functions effectively, it could change how large public market networks are managed in the province. Real-time surveillance combined with citizen feedback may allow administrators to respond more quickly to problems than in previous years.
If the system struggles, however, critics may question whether technological oversight alone can resolve the long-standing challenges associated with Ramzan bazaars.
Another factor will be independent evaluation. Research organisations, media outlets and civil society groups often conduct surveys during Ramzan to assess the performance of government relief initiatives. Their findings frequently influence public perception of whether such programmes succeed or fall short.
In that sense, the central control room initiative represents more than just a technological upgrade. It reflects a broader attempt to bring greater transparency and accountability to a system that affects millions of consumers during one of the most important months of the year.
Whether the experiment ultimately succeeds will become clear only once the markets begin operating at full capacity.
For now, Punjab’s Ramzan bazaars are entering a new phase—one where hundreds of stalls, dozens of markets and thousands of daily transactions will be watched through a network of cameras and screens.
And for the institution managing the system, the real challenge lies not in building the control room itself, but in ensuring that what appears on those screens reflects markets that are fair, organised and truly beneficial for the citizens they are meant to serve.
