Politics of Policy Making in Pakistan

Abstract

Public policy is a course of action for government to address the problems of general public. It is designed through systematic cyclic process by following different steps present in the cycle.  Every step is a building block for next stage. Therefore, each and every step of the cycle is essential to follow in the process of policy making. Policies are developed in political  environment and numerous factors from this environment are involved in this whole process of policy making. These factors include resources, actors, rules, goals, skills, expertise and knowledge. Each factor has its own implication and significance in the process of policy making. Likewise, some other aspects like political economy, political and social structure and context and forms of government alsoinfluence the policy making process in diverse ways. Pakistan has unique political history since its inception. Consequently, she has experienced different forms of government in different eras due to diverse reasons. The uniqueness of political history and different forms of governments in Pakistan had given birth to multiple factors which played their role in policy making process of Pakistan. It is required to analyze the numerous factors which are present in external and internal environment of Pakistan and influence the policy making process of the country. It is also required to explore the political environment of Pakistan and to discover its influenceon policy making process. These areas are dealt in this research study. This research study is based on secondary source of data collection. The published research papers and books on the same area are consulted for exploring the identified dimensions associated to policy making process of Pakistan. The content analysis of literature has been done for explaining the politics of policy development process in Pakistan. The findings of this research study  haveexplained the diverse factors and theirinfluenceon the development of policies in Pakistan.  The outcomes of this research study will help to understand the dynamics ofpolitics of policy making process of Pakistan and its associated environment. It will help to explain the prevailing situation in Pakistan regarding the policy process and on the basis of the discussion the improvements can be suggested forrefiningand improving the process of policy development.