The past decade has seen a renewed emphasis on social protection in Pakistan. This
paper maps the existing social protection schemes in Pakistan, both, at the federal
and provincial levels, and provides a critical appraisal of the schemes based on
evaluations conducted in the recent past. Since Cash transfers, through the Benazir
Income Support Programme has emerged as the biggest and the most far reaching
social assistance scheme in the country, special emphasis is paid to its impact. The
literature on social protection in Pakistan has thus far not evaluated the impact of
social protection on labour market dynamics. This paper attempts to fill that gap by
using national data sets to estimate the impact of social protection on labour force
participation, wages, incomes, the decision to migrate and formalization. Based on
this evaluation, the paper concludes by laying out recommendations across fiscal
and schematic dimensions.