Which Government Schemes Have Actually Stopped

Utility Stores have been closed since 31 July 2025, and people are still searching for their prices. That is more than a year of demand for something that does not exist, which tells you how long a scheme keeps generating searches after it ends.

Several other programmes have been paused, renamed or folded into something else without much announcement. Here is what we could establish about each, and how to check any scheme yourself before you spend a day on an application.

Where things stand

The middle row is the one that catches people. A scheme that was renamed is not a scheme that ended, and searching for the old name returns pages that describe something real under a label nobody uses any more.

Utility Stores, and what replaced them

The closure followed a directive reported to have come from the Prime Minister after a meeting in late June, and it ended an organisation that had run for decades. Reporting puts the workforce at around eleven and a half thousand, with a separation package, and the network at roughly four thousand outlets serving a very large number of households each month.

Nothing replaced it as a subsidised grocery network. Support for low income households now runs through cash transfer rather than through subsidised shops, which is a different mechanism reaching a different group. If you relied on utility store prices, the practical answer is that the subsidy moved rather than continued.

Kamyab Jawan did not end, it changed name

The youth loan scheme people still call Kamyab Jawan operates as the Prime Minister's Youth Business and Agriculture Loan Scheme. The tiers, the markup rates and the online application are covered in our guide to the PM Youth Business Loan, where we read the tier structure on the scheme's own site.

So if somebody tells you Kamyab Jawan is finished, that is not right either. Search the current name and you find a live programme.

How to check a scheme yourself

1. Find the responsible body's own website rather than a scheme fan site.
2. See whether the site loads at all, since a dead organisation often has a dead domain.
3. Look for a notification or press release with a date on it.
4. Check whether the application portal actually opens.
5. Treat an undated page describing the scheme as no evidence it is running.

When we tried the Utility Stores website while preparing this page, it did not return a working response. That is not proof on its own, but combined with dated reporting of a closure it is a reasonable picture.

Closed schemes are prime material for fraud

This is the part that costs people money. A scheme that has ended, but that everybody still remembers, is ideal for anyone selling registration. The name is familiar, the benefit is plausible, and the target has no easy way to check.

So treat any offer to register you for a utility store card, or to enrol you in a housing scheme for a fee, as the warning it is. Government schemes do not use agents who charge for enrolment, and a programme that has closed cannot enrol anyone at any price.

The same reasoning applies to earning schemes, and we set out how to test a promise against where the money would have to come from in our piece on earning apps.

What is still running and worth your time

BISP Kafalat continues, and what it actually pays, along with where BISP's own site disagrees with itself on the figure, is in our page on the BISP payment amount. The education stipend attached to it is covered in our page on Taleemi Wazaif, where the published amounts differ from the ones circulating.

Both are worth checking against your own record rather than against a headline figure, which is the general lesson of this page.

Common questions about stopped schemes

Are Utility Stores coming back?

We have seen no reporting of a reversal. The closure was described as part of a wider decision about loss making state enterprises rather than a temporary suspension.

Can I still apply for Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar?

Reporting describes it as paused with new applications largely stopped, while some previously approved cases continued. Ask a participating bank directly rather than relying on a scheme page.

Is Kamyab Jawan finished?

No. It runs under the Prime Minister's Youth Business and Agriculture Loan Scheme name, and the application is online.

Why do so many sites still describe closed schemes?

Because the pages still attract searches. An undated page describing a scheme is not evidence that the scheme exists today.

Someone is offering to register me for a closed scheme.

That is a straightforward warning sign. A closed programme cannot enrol anyone, and no live government scheme requires a paid agent.

Last checked and sources

Last checked 29 August 2026. The Utility Stores closure from 31 July 2025, the directive attributed to the Prime Minister following a late June meeting, the workforce and outlet numbers and the separation package are reported, drawn from coverage including Dawn, The Express Tribune and Business Recorder, rather than read on a government page. We did try the Utility Stores website while preparing this and it did not return a working response, which is consistent but not proof. The Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar position is reported and is the least certain item here, which is why the page tells you to ask a bank rather than rely on it. The Kamyab Jawan continuation under the PM Youth Business and Agriculture Loan Scheme is supported by our own reading of that scheme's site, covered on our separate page.