HR groups in Punjab shut down for ‘anti-state activities’

ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Punjab have ordered several women and human rights groups to shut down, accusing them of unspecified "anti-state" activities, an official of a human rights group said.

Pakistan has toughened its stance against local and international non-government bodies in recent years, accusing some of using their work as a cover for espionage. In 2015, it ordered to expel Save the Children but reversed the decision.

"They are shutting up people by harassment," IA Rehman, an official of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told Reuters on Thursday. Police and security officials ordered about a dozen non-government organisations (NGOs) to halt operations, mostly in southern Punjab, Rehman added, with groups working on women's and human rights appearing to be the main targets. "The provincial government has given orders to district police offices that so-and-so organization has been indulging in anti-state activities, so ban this organization," he said.

Punjab Home Minister Rana Sanaullah did not respond to written queries about the orders. Two officials of non-government bodies in Punjab told Reuters the police had ordered their employees to halt work. "Yesterday, the police went to one of my colleagues in Bahawalpur and asked him to shut our office over there," said Mohammad Tehseen, director of South Asia Partnership Pakistan, which focuses on women's rights. The police gave him a letter, seen by Reuters, issued by the Punjab Home Department alleging that his organization was "pursuing (an) anti-state agenda". Tehseen denied the charge and said the police would not specify any actions to support the accusation.

Telephone calls to police officers in Bahawalpur went unanswered on Thursday and Friday. Other organisations received similar letters, Rehman said. Another NGO, Women in Struggle for Empowerment, was ordered to halt work in Punjab and obtained a copy of another letter from a provincial agency accusing it of activities "detrimental to National/Strategic Security". A copy of the letter provided to Reuters by the group's director, Bushra Khaliq, cites an order from the Interior Ministry. After copies of the documents were sent to Interior Ministry spokesman Sarfaraz Ahmed, he said a statement would be issued later, but it did not arrive by Friday afternoon.