Interior Minister Professor Ahsan Iqbal Wednesday said that International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGO’s) played a vital role in the development, eradication of poverty and overcome of diseases in country.
Talking to a delegation of Ambassadors, the minister said INGOs contribution in Pakistan for social –economic development and uplift was always welcomed and commendable.
According to press release here, however, the peculiar circumstances in Pakistan call for monitoring the operations and funding sources of INGOs to ensure that no extremism related NGO is able to secure foreign funding.
Interior Minister said that the applications of INGOs rejected for registration had mostly been done on the grounds of non compliance with the requisite registration process. He added that the criteria for the registration process of INGOs would be transparent and applicable across the board.
Interior Minister stated that the registration policy had been revised and now the INGOs whose applications were not approved could operate in Pakistan until the final decision on the appeals of INGOs was taken. If the appeal of any INGO is rejected by the appellate authority, then it will have to close its operations from Pakistan within sixty days.
The delegation comprised of ambassador of Eurpoean Union to Pakistan Jean Francois Cautain ; US ambassador to Pakistan , David Hale; Australian High Commissioner , Margaret Adamson; Canadian ambassador , Perry Calderwood and Norwegian ambassador Tore Nedrebo.
The Minister also said that Pakistan hosted 3.5 Million Afghan refugees. it is also the collective responsibility of international community to join hands with Pakistan to speed up repatriation process of Afghan refugees to home in order to help in peace building efforts.
He said that Pakistan always endorsed the peaceful political settlement in Afghanistan and had biggest stake in stable Afghanistan.

Source: APP