Audit of 100,000 NGOs planned

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to carry out an audit of incomes and expenditures of over 100,000 local and international NGOs and charity institutions working in Pakistan. It has also started considering making new legislation to regulate the work of these local and foreign NGOs.
Sources in Islamabad said that the ministries of interior, foreign affairs, finance and economic affairs will settle matters about the financing of international NGOs and their modus operandi and mandate. They said that a new mechanism for the registration at the Centre would be hammered out for those NGOs and charity institutions who receive aid from abroad.
The sources said that a database of all NGOs would be prepared in Islamabad in which the purpose and jurisdiction of the concerned NGOs would be fixed. The official reports disclosed that several foreign NGOs were not abiding by agreements and MoUs inked with Pakistan.
The government has asked the Economic Affairs Division to scrutinise the MoUs signed with all international NGOs to know to what extent the NGOs were acting according to the mandate under the MoUs.
The prime minister has formed a ministerial level committee under Special Adviser to PM Tariq Fatemi and its meeting is expected during the current week.Meanwhile, an important meeting will be held in the Ministry of Interior, chaired by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan today (Monday), in which some important affairs of security will be reviewed.
The interior minister will take parliament into confidence on the NGOs issue. The sources further said that there were limited number of international NGOs in the country before 9/11. Thousands of NGOs started working in the country during the Musharraf tenure and after him.