Daily Times

Good governance and designing policies for the citizens and country on a short or long term basis in different areas is a prime and fundamental job of any government in the world, but this has been a great challenge for the executive since the establishment of Pakistan and the same is still being continued with no clear ideas and way forward to rectify for the future social and human development of Pakistan. The existing governance and administrative structure has not been able to provide the proper and real results of these public policies planning to implementation at different stages and even have failed to evolve and provide a national, provincial and local comprehensive institutional mechanism to make a good, result-oriented and consistent policy along-with its implementation strategy for the development both in areas of social and human development of Pakistan.

There is a strong perception with the above background prevailing as well that due to lack of consistency and prescribed time limit in implementation of public policies the desired results for the people and governance have not been achieved and materialized. Potential financial and human resources of the country are being drained without any good productive output and impact and even the costs and public funds of these policies have also been increased and burden the national exchequer. In addition to that, the ranking of Pakistan in policymaking & implementation has been in lower grades in many sectors of the world, which should alarm the executive, the legislatures and policymakers of the country.

In reality, policymaking has been dominated by weak planning, weak consultation, weak implementation, weak public oversight since independence.

Many indicators and ranking of Pakistan in governance, policymaking, foreign direct investment, ease of doing business and development both in the social sector and human sectors are clear examples and required urgent consideration from the legislatures, policymakers and executive as well. In reality, policymaking (since independence) has been dominated by weak planning, weak consultation, weak implementation, weak public oversight. Sometimes, it has been based on vested interests of particular segments which resultantly failed to provide the due results and even sometimes to have obtained the public trust and confidence.

As per international standards and best practices, public policy can generally be defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives for the welfare of their citizens with the best priorities and time limit execution. A sound public policy-making process is founded on high-quality decisions at the top government level and then to have a strong follow-up with a time-bounded implementation strategy. The salient features of a successful public policy require empowerment, accuracy, openness, public participation, transparency, legitimacy and proper time limit execution.

There are many factors as well behind the general public policy failure in Pakistan, which include weak government & institutional structure, corruption, lack of visionary leadership & political will, absence of strong public oversight mechanism, insufficient or irrelevant financial allocations, incompetent inefficient human resource, lack of continuity in successive government policies, overlapping in government functioning, lack of centralized approach to implementation and last but not the least the poor policy towards preparation, evaluation and monitoring system in government at different levels.

There has been another dilemma that neither proper public input usually has been sought in making these public policies nor research with correct data has been carried out or obtained through reliable ground information to verify the assumptions and the way forward which is required for successful public policies. Public policy failure also occurs because of deep structure institutional practices associated with unbridled discretion, rent-seeking objectives, and non-transparent obligations and favours.

For a successful and bright future for Pakistan, there is an urgent need to review the process of policymaking and to identify the areas of preparation, efficiency and effectiveness of governance at all levels i.e. federal, provincial and local government levels with a serious concern for development and growth in the short term and long term strategies with an implementation strategy. It is a fact that poor governance and failure in public policies in several ways have increased non-transparency in government affairs, invoking unbridled discretion which finally leads to corruption, favouritism and not to deliver with long term benefits.

As per the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the executive at federal, provincial and local district government levels is responsible for the development of public policies at all different government levels along with its implementation strategy for the well being of citizens of Pakistan in their respective areas of jurisdiction. Thus there is an urgent need to take rudimentary administrative, legal and institutional steps to work and move on for the success of public policies at the national, provincial and local government levels by evolving a precise coherent institutional strategy for allocation & utilizing public funds and human resources by considering the priorities, ground realities in a best appropriate way through better research & planning, preparation, identification & proper designing, transparency, digitization, citizens feedback, openness, implementation roadmap with reality, suggesting steps for eradication of delay, improving coordination & ownership among relevant stakeholders, proper evaluation & monitoring implementation system with time limit through strong public oversight mechanism and action against delinquent officials.

For vibrant, citizens oriented and successful public policies in Pakistan, governments at all levels in addition to their capacities must utilize the potential of concerned professionals and the academia and students of public and private universities, especially for those areas where the public policy would go for the drafting and execution. Engagements of universities in the process of policies can be quite cost-effective rather than become more effective and productive and that would also increase the capacity for conducting research and surveys for policy formulation in government.

Further, in government due importance has not been given to each and every institution individually to increase their capacities and professionalism, thus there is an urgent need that government bodies must acknowledge the ground realities for such challenges and realize the importance of successful & consistent policies for a prosperous, socially and economically stable Pakistan. In addition to the above, we have seen recent success of public policies and implementation through better planning, proper utilization of data, research & digitization and coordination among government and private stakeholders with effective oversight mechanisms in areas of Covid 19 across the country and Locust as well, and that policies and implementation success has been acknowledged and applauded at both by national and international levels. This good experience should also be studied and followed in other government sectors for better policymaking and implementation for the good future of Pakistan.

For better output and results of public policies, the option of administrative action may also be explored against all the delinquent officials through institutional mechanisms that are responsible for drafting the defective public policies and held responsible for not implementing the timely execution. There is also a need for the success of public policies to increase the role of public participation, required proper professional consultation and enhance the government institutional structure and capacities at all levels for efficiency in drafting, preparation, evaluation and execution of time-bounded policies and implementation. All these steps can provide good results and improve Pakistan’s ranking in governance and policymaking in the world.

The writer is a practicing lawyer at Supreme Court and has served as Chairman, Federal Excise & Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal and Senior Advisor Federal Ombudsman. He can be reached at: hafizahsaan47@gmail.com.