Policies abound

For most of the seventy-seven years since Pakistan’s emergence, successive governments have relied on rhetoric rather than action, particularly in providing basic necessities to the people. They have sustained themselves on hollow promises, wrapped in policy frameworks, without meaningful execution. As a result, despite the countless policies, plans and programmes announced for public welfare, the ordinary people’s condition has remained largely unchanged. Pakistan’s social indicators have, regrettably, ranked among the worst in Asia, with the country falling behind its regional peers in living standards over recent decades. A policy is meant to be a strategic course of action guiding government decisions toward rational outcomes. But are we merely creating policies for the sake of having them?

Hussain Ahmad Siddiqui

Islamabad