Committee formed to examine foreign funding received by NGOs

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has formed a six-member committee to review foreign funding received by international and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

According to the notification, Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi, Economic Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, Interior Secretary Capt (retd) Khurram Muhammad Agha, Finance Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal and Law and Justice Secretary Raja Naeem Akbar will be the members of the committee, which will “review the channels” through which NGOs receive funding from foreign countries and suggest concrete steps to ensure transparency and visible funding trails, the notification said, according Dawn.com.

“The committee will also ensure that any funding received by NGOs will be “utilised for the purpose for which they have been received”.

The notification said that the six-member body will submit its report to the federal cabinet in four weeks.

The move came after sources previously told Dawn that the government was set to conclude whether to allow over a dozen international NGOs to work in the country or not.

The Dawn reported that a meeting of the special committee chaired by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on August 31 meant to have a committee that could look into the said matter. The NGOs include those who either denied permission to operate in Pakistan and asked to renew their registration or the ones whose MoUs with the government have expired and have applied for their renewal.

In the held meeting, the participants reviewed INGOS’ application registration against rejection and renewal of their MoUs with the government. A detailed review of each application and relevant documents submitted by the organisations would be conducted, the interior minister stated.

The policy

In 2015, government of the time had framed a detailed policy framework that supervised and facilitated INGOs which were operational in Pakistan.

Under the policy, the then-interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan disclosed that all INGOs, that were either already working or wanted to initiate it, were directed to register with the government through MoU. Subsequently, organisations that did not comply with the directives were hampered from operating in the country.

The Dawn.com reports that some INGOs had stopped fundraising drives inside or outside Pakistan or assisting their local offices without permission from the government.

Months before unveiling the policy, the former prime minister Imran Khan had disclosed more than 1,000 foreign intelligence operators that had come to Islamabad over the past few years under the guise of INGOs’ representatives.

Read More: Musadik Malik assures no gas price hike in winter

In December 2018, the PTI government expelled 18 international charities after their applications to work in Pakistan were cancelled. The majority of the INGOs were US-based, and the rest were either from the UK or the European Union, according to a Dawn.com report.

According to a document of the time saved by the apex intelligence agency, some of these INGOs had vast capital and “well-established ingress from top government level to grass root levels of union councils”.

The INGOs had “turned into a mafia”, the document underscored.

“Following a scrutiny of the INGOs by state organisations, scores … were found working against the interest of Pakistan and involved in sensitive issues related to security and religious matters,” the document stated.

Some of these INGOs were accused of contributing to a “hybrid war” against Pakistan and also “encouraging sectarianism, promoting foreign agenda, supporting hostile spy agencies, collecting illegal data and operating without any legal backing”.

The country’s premier intelligence agency had also accused the INGOs of “working as front offices of hostile intelligence agencies, trying to influence electoral system, weapon smuggling, illegal data collection, hiding presence of foreign employees, supporting the sub-nationalist and anti-state movement”, among other serious claims.