| In early 1990s, government of Pakistan realized that water infrastructure was failing, and there was a sense of urgency to cope with the water scarcity, and the challenges posed worsening groundwater quality, and potential impact of climate change variability. Thus, the government of Pakistan actively pursued water policy making in 1992, and announced the first national water policy in 2003. The policy draft is to be approved. The deadlock in policy adoption since then is presumably due to technical reasons, and lack of transparency in dealing with the advocacy coalitions, which were instrumental in water policy making in Pakistan.;To assess the policy processes and the role of governance, study utilizes three theoretical frameworks. The first two, advocacy coalition framework and the epistemic communities framework are imbedded in network concept. The third, punctuated equilibrium framework brings in the concepts of shaping a new policy image, and the use of multiple venues. The network approach provides a solid theoretical framework for the study that helps assess decision-making processes involving a multitude of individuals, collective, public and private actors. The ACF and ECF are closely related frameworks, they both point to networks of individuals being major agents of change, and both address the role of ideas, information and learning process in policy making.;The study discovered that there were mainly three coalitions in the water sector; the developers, the economists, and the environmentalists. These coalitions will likely continue to contest for future policy options. The ACF maintains that such core-to-core contest, however, leads to stalemate since core beliefs are, by definition, stable and not susceptible to change. The case study also finds, in the wake of stalemate, the rival coalitions went through a process of policy oriented learning, which might have prepared them for policy change. As each of these competing coalitions, while supporting ACF's premises to some extent agreed to alter something in its policy core beliefs and the secondary aspects concerning water resources, but remained consistent with its deep core beliefs. Finally, study concludes that two severe droughts in past two decades played a major role in setting the policy debate in motion.;This dissertation research uses a single case study design and its goal is to capture the experiences of Pakistan's water policy formulation, and evolution of Pakistan's water infrastructure from the period 1947 to 2003. The primary objective is to develop a framework that explains the policy processes, coalitions, and the actors involved and their beliefs in water policy formulation. In order to achieve the objectives, this study draws upon both primary and secondary sources of information. The primary data came from interviews with individuals and experts with potential interest in water policy. The secondary data was gathered from several government and non-government organizations, policy papers, academic materials, laws and Acts, and institutions involved in management of water resources, and policy making in Pakistan. |
