In May 2025, Pakistan announced the establishment of the National Agri-Trade and Food Safety Authority (NAFSA), replacing the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) and the An-imal Quarantine Department (AQD).

The initiative was presented as a major reform aimed at aligning Pakistan’s agriculture and food trade systems with international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards under the WTO framework as well as the requirements of the IPPC, Codex Alimentarius and WOAH. On paper, the vision appears modern and ambitious. In practice, however, the present structure of NAFSA risks undermining the very objectives it claims to achieve. The most serious concern is the growing dominance of bureaucracy over technical leadership. Senior positions, including that of Director General, are reportedly being occupied or filled by non-technical officers, depriving the institution of science-based decision-making. For an authority entrusted with safeguarding Pakistan’s food safety, plant health, animal health and export certification systems, sidelining........

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