KARACHI: The social welfare department (SWD) has decided to take action against registered organisations that have not kept legal contact with the department for at least last five years.
Interestingly, the department, through newspapers, has issued show cause notices to 111 organisations. Most of these organisations were established in the city’s oldest area, Lyari and are registered for the welfare of their respective communities.
Some of the organisations were registered in the 1960s and are considered among the oldest in Sindh. Nearly 10,000 of these organisations are registered across Sindh, including more than 4,000 in Karachi alone.
According to the SWD, the organisations that have failed to keep in contact with the department have been warned.
The registration of those organisations will be cancelled which fail to cooperate with the SWD, said the SWD provincial coordinator, Abdul Aleem Lashari.
“It is a final warning because the department has already sent them notices,” Lashari said.
The official said that these organisations have failed to submit progress reports, social activity reports, and election reports and renew their organisations’ registration. Lashari added that action will only be taken against organisations registered under the Social Welfare Act.
Lashari claims that all district officials have been asked to submit progress reports of the organisations in their districts so that action can be taken accordingly.
“It is the first phase,” Lashari claimed, adding that notices will be issued to other similar organisations of the city in the second phase, while dormant organisations in other districts of the province will also be given final warnings.
On the other hand, officials of the above mentioned organisations claim that the SWD’s officials never maintained contact with them nor had they issued notices before publishing their organisations’ names in the newspaper.
“We haven’t ever been served a notice,” said the general-secretary of the Anjuman Young Muslim Hingora, Abdul Majeed Hingora.
“I don’t think the SWD has ever bothered to contact us nor has it asked us to submit any report,” he added. He complained that the SWD has issued show-cause notices through newspapers. “How are we supposed to know about such notices?” he asked.
Hingora said that his organisation is one of the oldest in the city and was registered in 1963. “Our elders started social welfare activities according to the law and we follow them,” he said.
He said that the organisation has 2,000 members from different parts of the city and has three Jamaat Khanas [community halls], including one in Old Kalri, one in New Kalri and one in Moosa Lane.
“We work for the welfare of our community people,” he explained, saying that the social activities are extended to help needy families financially.
Suleman Patel, the president of Kutchi Muslim Mandra Jamaat, was also unaware of the issue.
“We weren’t given any notice earlier,” he said.
He said that his organisation also serves community members and also provides graveyard facilities. “The jamaat is bound to help its members in all difficulties,” he explained.
“We aren’t given any financial help by the government or from any other donor agencies. It’s a self-based charity organisation that serves its own community,” he added,.
The office bearers of these organisations complained that the government has taken action against only community-based welfare organisations which do not receive financial aid from foreign agencies.
Lashari clarified that the decision has been taken solely by his department. “The action is not being taken on the directives of any agency,” he said.
Meanwhile, licences of over 30 percent of local NGOs registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) have been cancelled over the past three months for their failure to comply with regulations.
“The law requires the NGOs to get their licences renewed after every five years and all registered NGOs were directed to get their documents revalidated by Feb 16 this year,” an SECP official said.
The licences of 108 NGOs were cancelled in April for their failure to comply with corporate laws, he said. After further scrutiny, the licences of another 100 NGOs were revoked.
Around 650 local non-governmental organisations have been registered with the SECP and 423 of them completed five years of existence by Jan 1, 2015.
Though the action against the NGOs was initiated after the National Action Plan to counter terrorism was enforced in December 2014, officials deny any link with the plan.
“Local NGOs are registered under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance 1984 and it is being checked whether they are complying with the law or not,” the SECP spokesperson said, rejecting the perception that the action had been taken because of security concerns.
A majority of the NGOs, whose licences have been cancelled, had failed to file annual returns and accounts and to apply for renewal of their licences within the specified time.
Internews
