Interior Minister Chauhdry Nisar on Thursday said that more than 1,000 intelligence operators came to Islamabad under the guise of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) during the previous government’s rule.
“Around 1,000 intelligence operators visited the country and got visas in the name of international aid groups in the previous government’s rule,” Nisar told the National Assembly. “All these operators were working with hostile intelligence agencies,” he added.
Nisar was responding to a call-attention notice by JUI-F Senator Hamdullah and PPP’s Saeed Ghani addressing various statements about INGOs particularly Save the Children.
The minister said the office of “Save the Children” was sealed on the advice of Economic Affairs Division for three weeks, adding that INGOs do not work under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry which only gave their security clearance.
Criticising the previous government, the interior minister said the people who raised the slogan of ‘Pakistan first’ never dared taking actions against these INGOs.
“Two international NGOs were banned in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan,” he said, adding that both the NGOs were registered in Africa while US, European Union, India and Israel were assisting them.
“We will not allow anybody to act against the country’s interest,” he said, adding that data related to NGOs would be regulated within the next three months.
The interior minister said thousands of foreigners were issued Pakistani identity cards and passports in the past but now those ID cards and passports would not be verified. He said 4 million foreigners were living in Pakistan and the government was trying to bring illegal settlers into the ambit of law.
The government on Monday decided that its top registration body, the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA), will be utilised to maintain a central database for the exit control list and to register international aid groups.
The development came weeks after the government had restricted operations of various INGOs in the country, prominently among them Save the Children.