K-P govt tables Charities Bill 2019

Seeks to register charity collectors and regulate their funds

PESHAWAR: Days before Ramazan when scores of organisations jump into the race to collect more and more charity in the name of Zakat and Fitrana, a bill has been tabled in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to form a commission for registering charitable organisations and regulating their funds.

The house also approved the Youth Development Commission Bill during its session on Tuesday.

According to the bill titled “Charities Bill 2019”, a five-member commission will be formed to regulate the charities and register welfare organisations in the province.

The charity commissioners would be either serving or retired civil servants, retired judges or could also be hired from the law, administration, social work or related organisations while their tenure would be for two years, while a commissioner would be eligible for two terms.

The commissioner would also be authorised to hold inquiry related to funding of any organisation to ensure transparency.

Under the proposed law, no charity organisation could collect funds without the registration with the charity commission. The registration and funding details will be considered public documents. On receiving any specific complaints; the registration of a charity organisation could be canceled and funds seized under the new law.

The K-P Assembly also approved the Youth Development Commission Act 2019, which would provide a roadmap for the welfare, wellbeing economically, political and socially the youth in the province.

K-P Minister for Sports Atif Khan moved the K-P Youth Development Commission Bill, 2019 which was passed by the House.

Under the new Act, a commission would be formed under the chair of the minister for sports and tourism to run the affairs related to youth, tourism, culture, and archaeology with the public-private partnership. The commission could also be authorized to form a committee in any case related to the issue.

The commission will have district Nazims as members who could appoint any youth or an NGO as member of the commission.

Presenting the stance of the provincial government, Atif Khan admitted that K-P has huge outstanding with the federal government but the payment is delayed due to the overburdened and overstressed economy.

He assured the House that a meeting would be arranged with Federal Minister for Finance Asad Umer and other relevant officials to address the issue of K-P’s share in developmental sector projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2019.