The News (Pakistan)
25/5/99
NGOs under fire in new campaign:
Similar efforts also made in the past; new registration forms, laws being finalisedBy Sultan J. Qureshi
Lahore: Recent attempts to curb NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) activities on various ground s is being seen by many as an attempt to gain control over independent NGOs, rather than to serve the public cause by clamping down on organisations acting merely for profit by misusing funds behind a facade of welfare work.
The Punjab Social Welfare Minister, Pir Binyamin Rizvi, who is leading the actions has however consistently denied any such move, stating the government is eager to stop groups acting against the national interest, while pointing out that a vast majority of NGOs were found to be bogus.
After swiftly scrapping 1,941 NGOs some weeks ago, Binyamin Rizvi has been accusing some NGOs of working against Pakistan and the ideology of the country. The minister has so far not named any particular NGO, but a spate of actions against the internationally known Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and other groups seems to suggest the direction of administrative moves.
A number of NGOs, including Shirkat Gah, a body working essentially to research issues linked to women's welfare , the legal rights and community work; Aurat, a group carrying out research and work on raising awareness among women and Ajoka, a theatre group which first began performing plays under the regime of the late General Ziaul Haq, are also said to be at the forefront of the evidence-collecting exercise presently being carried out.
Shirkat Gah, headed by well-known activist Khawar Mumtaz, has already been served a notice asking it to explain its position regarding funds and other matters. The reason for the actions is unclear, especially since the Ajoka theatre group, staging street plays to raise awareness on a variety of issues, Aurat and Shirkat Gah have remained non-controversial in the past. The HRCP too, which speaks out routinely on national issues, has never been accused of malpractices. It's current chairperson is Asfandyar Wali.
All the four named NGOs, as well as others, are well established, in most cases with office premises, known office holders and a record of work visible to most.
Last week, the government cancelled the declaration of the HRCP's quarterly newsletter claiming the organisation did not respond to the notice sent to them for non-compliance with the rule of sending two copies of the newsletter to the government and notifying a change in address and the printers.
The HRCP has maintained it was regularly sending the copies, whereas it was not aware that under existing publication rules it was required to notify a change in premises. It also says no notice was received by it.
Interestingly, this is not for the first time that the government has started a move against NGOs. There have been similar attempts in the past. In August 1994, the then Punjab minister for social welfare Badarud Din Chaudhry also issued statements about taking stern action against NGOs. A draft legislation in this regard was also made to be presented before the National Assembly. This ignited a long debate at that time as well, which finally faded out without making any headway either way.
However, this time the government action has come with great speed and fury. Criminal cases, with the Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) have also been registered against NGOs who have not provided or refused to provide audit reports of their accounts to the government.
Against the general impression that NGOs are a relatively new phenomena in this part of the world, the concept of welfare and reformatory committees involving and organizing people at the grassroots level has existed since long. The Agha Khan Rural Support Programme, Orangi Pilot Project, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Ansar Burni Trust, Women Action Forum and Aurat Foundation are few names that have been playing an important role in community development, poverty alleviation and awareness raising. Other NGOs, linked to women's welfare or family planning, in some cases date back to the days before Partition.
According to a survey by the Planning and Development Division, there were some 6,500 NGOs registered in Punjab alone. All but a few hundred NGOs did not submit their audits to the government. The majority of these NGOs are small, operating at local levels. They are predominantly charity or welfare oriented but have little to do with development.
It is also clear many are in fact dummy organisations, and after a proper survey need to be eliminated. In some cases, such outfits do not even have an office, and money goes straight into the pockets of the 'office-bearers' running them. In other instances they are fooling people in the name of providing education, drug rehabilitation or other facilities, employing unqualified staff and charging high fees for these non-existent services.
It is clear the main thrust of any action must be directed against such bodies, in some case causing real harm to innocent citizens.
The larger NGOs are well-established, professionally managed, often with a body of paid staff. These are mostly urban-based and because they are sustained through donor agencies, their information of objectives is closely linked with the availability of donor funds. Besides other allegations against the NGOs, embezzlement of funds is another point that the government is working on.
Interestingly, funds misappropriation was the main reason which emerged for several government programmes to end without bearing fruit. The 'five point' programme of the Junejo government, the People's Works Programme of the Benazir Bhutto government and Tameer-e-Wattan Programme of the Nawaz Sharif government were mostly used for political patronage rather than for people's development. As such, the gap between the 'haves' and 'haves not' has been increasing over the time.
These ground conditions in fact played a part in giving rise to the NGOs, in order to try and address the grave imbalance in all socio-economic and political sectors of society. The poorest sections of society, who are mostly excluded from the government poverty alleviation programmes, are the target of the work of various NGOs, such as Akhtar Hamid Khan's Karachi-based Orangi Pilot Project - which has become a model for similar work for social upliftment around the world.
The failure of Junejo's Housing Scheme is one example which proves that the development schemes carried out without consulting the beneficiaries could result in waste of resources. On the other hand, the flood resistant housing schemes of Pattan development Organisation in the flood prone areas of Shamsabad (Dist Sargodha) and Sunakhi (Dist Muzaffargarh) are successful because the community was involved in designing construction and management of project.
Similarly, other NGOs have involved themselves in works aimed at raising awareness about human rights, acting to try and curb violations, checking instances of injustice or carrying out much needed research work into issues such as development, the rights of women, awareness among various sectors as to their rights and so on…
International awards given to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and worldwide recognition of the services of many other NGOs are proof that these NGOs are serving a cause. Acting against them only because some are perceived as raising points which criticise governmental policy amounts to seeing matters in a highly negative light. Rather than lashing out against the HRCP's report for 1998, which pointed to instances of police torture, 'encounter' deaths, violence against women and so on - the national cause may have been better served by at least looking into these issues, and amending matters where truth was found behind the extensive data collected.
In its apparent attempt to subdue the NGOs, the government is currently working on a new registration law in which it is proposed to make compulsory for a detailed form, including views on religious, ideological and other matters to be filled out in detail. It is not clear if only those heading NGOs, or all its members too, are expected to complete the forms - or what the situation will be in the case of NGOs run by Christians.
The NGOs, under the new registration regulations, will also have the guarantee that they will not work against Islam and the State, and are bound to provide annual statements of their accounts being spent on their projects. However, the NGOs have fortunately been given the right to appeal against the cancellation of the registration. The summary in this regard has been sent to the chief minister with suggestion to lift the ban on new registration of NGOs.
It is not clear if any evidence exists at present with the government on anti-Sate activities involving an NGO. If such proof exists, as has been indicated by Pir Binyamin, it is imperative it be produced before the courts, so action can be swiftly taken against those engaged in such offences, ranked as among the most serious of crimes, so that due punishment under the law can be meted out without delay.
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