SC won’t cut provinces any slack on NGOs’ details

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  • Per counsels, 47,403 NGOs are registered in Punjab, 10,000 in KP, 1,800 in Balochistan, 6,150 registered and 2,500 unregistered in Sindh

 

Hearing a case pertaining to the registration and funding of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), a two-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Thursday directed all the four provincial governments to submit detailed reports regarding the NGOs’ funding.

During the hearing, Justice Khawaja was displeased when the Law and Justice secretary told the court that the federation and provinces had not submitted complete details of NGOs’ funding. The secretary said that Interior Ministry did not provide concerned information and he has obtained complete details regarding 63 NGOs. He said that they had prepared a form for NGOs on the court’s direction.

Directing the investigation officers to submit complete details of NGOs as soon as possible, Justice Khawaja remarked that foreign funding were working as oxygen for terrorists and if the government succeeded in stopping this funding, terrorism would eliminate from the society. He said that according to National Action Plan, foreign funding should be stopped but governments were not working on this.

Earlier, Punjab Additional Advocate General Razzaq A Mirza informed the court that as many as 47,403 NGOs were registered in Punjab while the counsel for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) cited the presence of 10,000 NGOs in KP.

A Balochistan government representative informed the court that there were 1,800 NGOs registered in the province while in Sindh, as many as 6,150 registered NGOs and 2,500 unregistered NGOs were operating.

Later on, adjourning the case hearing till August 20, the court directed the provinces to fill the NGO forms so that basic information could be gathered.