Article Type

Article

Description

The consolidation of democratic polity in Pakistan in the last few years has raised a legitimate and interesting question. Who sets public policy in Pakistan and how is it formulated?

Under the Constitution, the responsibility of policymaking rests solely with the executive branch, with further division among the federal, provincial and local governments.

Under the 18th Amendment, the concurrent list has been abolished and most of its powers transferred from the centre to the provincial governments. The provincial government can further delegate authority, powers and resources under its control to the local governments.

The recent legislations on local government are highly restrictive as far as the power of the lower tier of government is concerned except in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The 2001 Local Government Ordinance that lapsed in 2010 was an attempt aimed at the substantive devolution of powers.

So who initiates the process of policymaking? In theory, an elected government has a manifesto on the basis of which it is voted to power. The ruling party and its leadership should in principle decide the priorities enshrined in the manifesto and then the timing, sequencing and phasing of different policies.

Ideally, the government in Pakistan would then ask the concerned ministries to prepare a draft document that takes stock of the existing situation, diagnoses the problems, analyses the various options, outlines the preferred option, costs out its financial implications and spells out the action plan along with milestones and deadlines.

Publication Source

Dawn

Publication Date

11-14-2013

Pages

1-3

Download

Share

COinS