Shirkat Gah
New Garden Town
Lahore
Pakistan
May 25, 1999
Press Release
Shirkat Gah strongly contradicts the statement of Punjab Social Welfare Minister, Pir Binyamin Rizvi alleging that Shirkat Gah has received Rs. 800 million from the World Bank. Despite the Bank's clarification (published in English and Urdu papers on 21-05-99) that Shirkat Gah has never received any funding from the Bank, the Minister has repeated this false and defamatory allegation.
Shirkat Gah views this as another instance of the Minister's irresponsible attitude. This is part of the on-going vilification campaign against organisations whose services in the field of human rights and women rights have not only been acknowledged by the sitting government and successive regimes, but also internationally. The Minister's other allegation of Shirkat Gah's refusal to provide audited accounts to the Social Welfare Department is also not true. Shirkat Gah, in any case does not function under the Social Welfare Department and is therefore not liable to provide its accounts to the Social Welfare Department. Shirkat Gah's accounts are regularly submitted to the Registrar Societies.
Shirkat Gah takes strong exception to the language used by the Minister and the deplorable accusations made generally against NGOs. It urges the Punjab Chief Minister to check Mr. Binyamin from making such statements, these are only a reflection of his own mentality and give the government a bad image.
K. Mumtaz
Coordinator
Shirkat Gah
Return to: Civil Society Under Attack in Pakistan
or return to the Shirkat Gah Alert for Action (May 18, 1999)
Hosted by: South Asia Citizens Web