Pakistan tightens grip on foreign charities

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Pakistan ordered international aid groups to cease their activities within 60 days amid accusations of secretly helping Western governments.

The government has asked 21 international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) to wrap up their operations and leave after failing to re-register under strict regulations introduced two years ago, said Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

US billionaire philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Foundations and the South Africa-based ActionAid were among the charities informed of the decision this week, the officials told AP news agency but did not provide a full list.

Open Society Foundations' billionaire financier George Soros speaks at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York, September 15, 2010. /Reuters Photo

What went wrong

The killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011 led to suspicions against INGOs after it emerged the US intelligence agency CIA ran a fake vaccinations scheme to capture bin Laden.

A US Navy Seal commando team killed bin Laden in a surprise raid in the northeastern town of Abbottabad.

Aid group Save the Children was linked to Shakeel Afridi, a doctor who worked for the CIA operation in a Pakistan intelligence report, resulting in the expulsion of the charity's international staff.

The group, however, denied the allegation.

Pakistan stepped up monitoring and increased pressure on foreign aid agencies, accusing them of being covers for spying operations and repeatedly warning them to limit activities.

Authorities asked in 2015 all foreign aid groups to re-register under the new process that reportedly requires submission of details of funding accounts.

“NGOs working against Pakistan’s strategic, security, economic or other interests will have their registration canceled,” former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said at the time.

“While we will welcome INGOs to operate freely and independently in Pakistan, let me also make it very clear that now there would absolutely be no margin or space for any INGO to misuse its permission. We would not allow anyone to work against our national security interests under the facade of INGO,” Nisar said earlier this year.

"Eviction order"

Open Society Foundations, which works on a variety of programs from education to governance, sought the interior ministry's clarification over the current decision.

The spokesman for Open Society Foundations, Jonathan Birchall, confirmed receiving a notification from the interior ministry declining the charity's re-registration.

“At the end of November, the interior ministry issued letters advising more than a dozen INGOs that their applications to register had been rejected but gave no reasons. The affected organizations may lodge an appeal within 90 days, but it is not clear how this process will be managed,” Open Society Foundations said.

International charity ActionAid also confirmed it received an order to leave the country after its application to re-register was rejected.

Pakistan's former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan attends a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, May 24, 2016. /Reuters Photo‍

The organization "has been given 60 days to close all operations in the country," it said in a statement released last week, after its application to register under Pakistan's new rules for international non-governmental organizations was declined.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF) said in September it had been ordered to stop its activities in a militancy-hit tribal district.

As many as 58 international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have been formally allowed to operate in Pakistan under the new registration policy framework, Pakistan's English daily Dawn quoted a senior official of the ministry of interior as saying in March.

He said 130 foreign aid groups filed registration papers under the new regulations.

INGOs work directly benefits about 29 million people in the country, said Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, which represents many foreign aid groups.

International aid groups contributed about 285 million US dollars in funding for development and emergency relief in 2016, and employ over 5,000 local staff, it said.

The Open Society Foundations launched in 2015 its programs in Pakistan with 3 million US dollars of emergency relief for victims of a devastating earthquake. It provided another 6 million US dollars in emergency funds after severe flooding in 2010.

Eviction of INGOs became an issue in Hungary in June, when its parliament approved a crackdown on foreign-backed civil society groups.

The parliament passed a law, which requires groups availing more than 26,000 US dollars annually in international funding to register as a “foreign-supported organization.”

They were asked to use the label “foreign-supported organization” on their websites, press releases and other publications.

(With input from news agencies)