Award-winning Sargodha-based NGO banned over ‘dubious activities’

Taang Wasaib has operations in 12 districts of the Punjab

LAHORE: The offices of an award-winning Sargodha-based organisation, working for religious harmony, have been sealed over ‘dubious activities.’

Satellite Town police raided the offices of Taang Wasaib Organisation (TWO), took its male staff in custody and sealed the premises on September 1, says Dr Rubina Feroze Bhatti, founder and general secretary of the TWO. Talking to The Express Tribune, she said police had not given any reason for sealing the office.



“We were not informed about allegations against us. Policemen locked our office and told us that the organisation had been banned,” she said.

She said the staff was later released on Parliamentary Secretary Tariq Masih Gill’s intervention. She said the police had told Gill that the offices had been sealed on the directions of Home Department.

According to a circular issued by the Home Department on June 14, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the department had received a report from an intelligence agency that the TWO was involved in dubious activities. The Home Department had recommended that the organisation be banned and necessary follow-up action be taken in accordance with the law.

Bhatti told The Express Tribune that the police had not specified the undesirable element in the organisation’s activities. She said the TWO was established in 1998 and was registered under the Trust Act 1882 in March 2000 and later under the Societies Act 1860 in September 2003.

She said TWO was a rights-based development group working for communal and religious harmony and equality by addressing issues of violence against women, religious intolerance, sectarianism and discriminatory laws.

“Over the years, the TWO has expanded its areas of operation to 12 districts in the Punjab. Its work is widely recognised.”

She said the TWO had received various awards, including the UNDP Peace Award and World Vision International Peacemaking Award.

“I am a member of the advisory council for minority affairs established by the Ministry for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs. On August 11, the ministry gave me an award for outstanding contribution to building a positive image of Pakistan.”

“Allegations of dubious activities are not justified,” she said.

Peter Jacob, another rights activist, told The Express Tribune that closure of the TWO’s office had caused alarm among activists.

“If TWO has been closed today, other rights organisations might face similar action,” he said.

He said an appeal had been filed against TWO’s closure with the Home Department.



“We have asked the home secretary to intervene in the matter and stop the smear campaign against the TWO and its administration through news outlets.”

He claimed that TWO had been shut down a day after a newspaper published a news item saying that TWO was a banned organisation.

DSP Shahid Nazeer told The Express Tribune that he was not aware of the allegations against the NGO.

“We sealed the offices on orders from the Home Department,” he said. He said no FIR had been registered in this regard.

Tariq Masih Gill, the parliamentary secretary for the Human Rights and Minority Affairs Department, told The Express Tribune that their department had given a human rights Award to Rubina.

“I have met the Sargodha district police officer and asked him to reopen the offices and release its workers,” he said. Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Mehar Ijaz Ahmed Achlana told The Express Tribune that he was unaware of any move against TWO.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2016.