Punjab to Set Up a Parks Authority in Every District by January 2027

Short answer: Punjab will set up a Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) in every district. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz approved the plan at a meeting on Friday 9 October 2026, with a deadline of January 2027 for 20 more districts. A second phase will take PHAs down to every tehsil.

A PHA is the body that builds and looks after public parks, green belts, roadside trees and flower beds in a city. Lahore has had one since 1998. Most districts have never had one, so parks there fall to the municipal committee alongside rubbish, drains and streetlights.

We read the Punjab government's own statement on the meeting and the Lahore PHA's website. Here is what was decided, and what it means if you live outside Lahore.

Every Punjab district gets a parks authority by January 2027

The chief minister approved PHAs in all districts, and set January 2027 as the deadline to create them in 20 more districts. The statement issued by the Punjab information department on 9 October 2026 says the second phase will put a PHA in every tehsil.

Reports of the same meeting add two numbers that the official statement does not carry. PHAs already work in 10 districts and new ones have been set up in 11 more, they say. And the government approved recruitment for 2,820 technical posts, from managing directors and directors down to district staff.

Ten plus 11 plus 20 makes 41, which matches the number of districts in Punjab after the newest ones were created. That is our arithmetic, and it suggests the plan really does cover the whole province.

Each district will run its own nursery and planting plan

Every district will get an in-house nursery that sells plants at affordable prices for planting drives and flower displays. Each PHA must also make a resource plan, run planting drives in tehsils, towns and villages, and follow a monthly plan for seasonal flowers.

The official statement lists the other decisions from the meeting:

• Key performance indicators, or KPIs, for PHA officials. These are measurable targets used to judge an officer's work.
• Trees and flowers in every available vacant space.
• Standard planters and flowerpots across Punjab cities.
• An approved design for PHA food courts.
• Uniform branding for PHA staff and vehicles.
• Orders for PHA staff working at officials' homes to return to their offices.

That last line is worth noticing. It means some PHA staff were working at private residences rather than in parks. The order to send them back came from the same meeting.

Lahore shows what a district PHA does

The Lahore PHA was set up in September 1998 under the Punjab Development of Cities Act 1976, its website says. It develops and maintains parks and green areas, regulates outdoor advertising such as billboards, and runs festivals and exhibitions.

It also runs services residents use directly. A commercial nursery in Gulberg sells plants from 9 am to 5 pm. An online system takes park bookings for weddings, Milad gatherings and photo shoots. Advertisers register and apply to install boards through the same system.

The meeting was told that all Category C parks in Lahore have been restored. Bougainvillea was planted along Khayaban-e-Jinnah, bamboo along Atta Bakhsh Road and amaltas trees along other roads. Three types of marigold are being grown across the province.

Lahore residents can already book a city sports ground the same way, as our walkthrough on how to book a ground or court at Nishtar Park shows.

What changes for people outside Lahore

Once your district has a PHA, parks and green belts get a dedicated owner. That should mean a named office to complain to, staff whose targets are about parks, and a local nursery selling plants.

But a new authority is not the same as better parks. The real test is whether the 2,820 posts are filled, and whether each district gets a budget for maintenance, not just planting drives. Neither the budget nor a hiring timeline was in the official statement.

Trees also matter for air. Punjab enters its smog season every October, and more green cover is one of the slow fixes. The fast ones are covered in our advice on what actually protects you in smog season.

Rubbish in parks is a separate job. In most districts that stays with Suthra Punjab, and the 1139 complaint line for missed garbage is still the place to report it.

What happens next

Three steps are due, in this order, based on the official statement:

1. The 20 new district PHAs must be set up by January 2027.
2. Recruitment advertisements for the 2,820 posts should follow, normally in newspapers and on official job portals.
3. The tehsil phase comes after that, and has no date yet.

No advertisement had appeared on the Lahore PHA's opportunities page when we checked on 10 October 2026.

Common questions

What is a Parks and Horticulture Authority?

It is a government body that builds and maintains public parks, green belts, trees and flower beds in a district. Lahore's PHA also licenses billboards and runs festivals.

When will my district get a PHA?

The deadline for 20 more districts is January 2027, the Punjab government said on 9 October 2026. It did not publish which districts are in that group.

Are there jobs in the new parks authorities?

Reports say 2,820 technical posts were approved. We found no advertisement yet, so do not pay anyone who offers you one of these jobs.

Can I buy plants from PHA?

Yes, in Lahore. PHA runs a commercial nursery in Gulberg, open 9 am to 5 pm. Every district is now meant to get its own nursery.

How do I contact PHA Lahore?

The office is at Gate No. 4, Jillani Park, 2 Jail Road, Lahore. Its numbers are 042 99200830 and 042 99203333.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Last checked on 10 October 2026 at about 19:45 PKT. We read the Punjab government statement of 9 October 2026 on the Punjab Directorate General Public Relations website and the Parks and Horticulture Authority Lahore website, including its nursery, online application and opportunities pages. The counts of 10 working and 11 new PHAs and the 2,820 posts are reported and were not in the official statement.