Maritime Summer School 2019

Report – Day 2: Policy Design and Analytics

The second day of Maritime Summer School 2019 started with a presentation from Dr.
Aneel Salman on Policy Analytics. Dr. Aneel began by defining the word policy and described
approaches towards policy analysis. In addition, Dr. Aneel told the participants about issues
in policy implementation and the reasons for a policy failure. He opined that policy failures
occur because “triple win”; an approach which takes all the social, economic and
environmental factors into account; is not adopted across all the sectors. However, Dr.
Aneel stated that defining a policy problem is easier said than done. He further described
the issues that arise while defining a problem and how it impacts decision making. The
inherently multi-dimensional nature of various social problems that overlap and contradict
each other make things difficult for policy makers.
Concomitantly, he told that the participants that policies can either be vote oriented or
public oriented. In case of vote oriented policy focus, foreign donor agencies take care of
the policy analysis. However, policy analysis becomes susceptible of bias in case of foreign
influence.
The second session of the day was highlighted by Brig (R) Dr. Tahir Ul Mulk Kahlon who is an
Assistant Professor at the National Defence University, Islamabad. The focus of Dr. Tahir's
presentation was on Policy Design and he began by explaining how policy is a political
activity and the significance it holds. According to him, public policy can exist only in
democracies because its "public" nature necessitates the involvement of the populace, the
demos.
The world of policy is complex as there are various actors acting at different levels in a single
locale. Implementation of policy also takes a long time span, sometimes even decades or
more. All this, according to Dr. Kahlon makes policy design and implementation a complex
process. Talking on the importance of policy design, he opined that everything in social and
political sphere needs to be designed in order to function smoothly. Additionally, the
importance of assumptions, goals, rules and rationale in policy design were also discussed.
The session ended with the concluding remarks from President MSF who presented a shield
to Brig (R) Dr. Tahir Ul Mulk Kahlon and thanked him for sparing his time for Maritime
Summer Schoo 2019 (MSS 19)
Later in the day, the participants of MSS 19 had an opportunity to visit the Centre for
International Peace and Stability (CIPS) at National University of Science and Technology,
Islamabad. Dr. Tughral Yamin, Associate Dean CIPS, welcomed the visitors and briefed the
audience on working of CIPS. Afterwards, Dr. Aneel Salman briefed the audience on
Maritime Summer School and initiated the simulation exercise which included SWOT
analysis of the Maritime Policy of Pakistan 2002 by the participant groups.

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Towards the end of session, President MSF, Dr. Syed Mohammed Anwer thanked Principal
NIPCONS, Associate Dean CIPS for extending their invitation to the participants of MSS 19 to
this exposure visit. Principal NIPCONS, Major General (R) Farrukh Bashir also thanked the
audience and commented on policy and emphasized the need for analysis and maritime
policy renewal. He commended the work done by MSF in the maritime sector and also
highlighted Pakistan’s important geostrategic location in addition to the resources that lie
unexplored in Pakistan.
In the end, Principal NIPCONS presented souvenir to President MSF. President MSF also
presented souvenirs to Principal NIPCONS and Associate Dean CIPS to end the day's
proceedings.

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