Six-month pause in INGO crackdown

Sources say Pakistan has already banned Norwegian Refugee Council and the Danish Refugee Council

ISLAMABAD: Amidst a flurry of activity and intense lobbying on the part of foreign governments, the federal government has decided that it will allow all international non government organisations (INGOs) to continue working in Pakistan for the next six months, effectively placing a moratorium on its own crackdown. The government will also require all INGOs operating in Pakistan to renew their registrations within the next three months.

The decision was taken at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad on Tuesday, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss the matter. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who initiated the crackdown, was present at the meeting, as was Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who has held meetings with foreign governments threatening to cut aid to Pakistan if the crackdown continues.

According to an official communiqué, the cabinet decided to suspend the crackdown for the next six months and gave all INGOs operating in Pakistan three months to reapply for registration. The government appears to have been acting out of fear of the international repercussions that a continued crackdown might have on Pakistan’s economic relations with the rest of the world. In addition, after Save the Children was ordered to shut down last week, many other INGOs have been pre-emptively approaching the courts to obtain stay orders against their forced closure.

Under current law, INGOs are treated as a form of foreign aid, and are therefore regulated by the Economic Affairs Division of the Finance Ministry. Chaudhry Nisar, however, appears to be proposing that they be treated as a law enforcement and counterespionage problem. In a meeting with journalists on Monday, he said that he had proposed that the power to register INGOs be transferred to the Interior Ministry.

The official handout stated that the matter would be resolved by an inter-ministerial committee headed by Tariq Fatemi, special adviser to the Prime Minister on foreign affairs.

The government is currently working on two fronts to streamline the operations of the international NGOs. It has decided to introduce a law to streamline their operations. It is also working on a draft Foreign Assistance Policy Framework.

The framework is aimed at bringing the foreign economic assistance within the government fold. At present, 65% of foreign economic assistance is not coming through the government channels, much of it through international NGOs funded directly by foreign governments. Islamabad wants at least 80% of this aid to come through government channels.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2015.