Public policy is the government's deliberate course of action for solving a public problem. It identifies the objective, assigns responsibility, allocates resources and provides a framework for implementation. At the launch of these glossy public documents cameras click, press releases announce a "new direction". Pakistan currently has, by conservative count, more than thirty active national policies. Most came with a promise that things would now change. The trouble is rarely the quality of the policy. It is that nobody owns what happens after the signatures dry.

The formal policy formulation and approval process is older than most officials now serving in the bureaucracy. Under the Rules of Business, 1973, every Ministry has a defined area of business and a set path for moving an idea from a working paper to a Cabinet decision, clearing Finance on cost and Law on legality along the way. Policies with development or financial implications also pass through the Planning Commission's appraisal system. Where a devolved subject is involved, the Council of Common Interests is meant to weigh in. On paper it is a sound sequence. What it never does is oblige a Ministry to revisit a policy once signed, or tie it to the money needed to carry it out.

Compare this with Singapore. Its........

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