LAHORE - More than 10 international and local NGOs in Punjab are under strict surveillance for their shadowy funding that could be used against the state interests, it is learnt.
Another two dozen non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the province are on the watch list for violation of their charter, which include foreign-funded local NGOs and international welfare organisations funded by Western and Muslim states, sources in the security services told The Nation on Sunday.
In a recently launched information gathering exercise in Punjab to list the unregistered NGOs and welfare organisations working in violation of their charter, the security services have adopted a tri-colour catalogue with Black, Grey and Green tags.
Green category includes all those organisations that are working according to their charter and as per laws of the state. The Black category NGOs are those which knowingly use their platform or provide it to others for anti-state activities, like espionage and efforts at state destabilisation. Ten NGOs and INGOs have been marked black in Punjab, sources said.
Grey NGOs are those which are not directly involved in anti-state activities but knowingly or unknowingly assist others in acts that harm country’s interests – like running anti-state propaganda campaigns, promoting activities against Pakistani culture or trying to influence public opinion on certain issues, such as country’s law on executions.
Naming non-operational NGOs as ‘Ghost NGOs’, Security services contacts said hunt was on to track the members of such organisations which possibly are using these fronts for unlawful activities that might hurt state interests. Ghost NGOs only exist in the welfare organisations list, they added.
When contacted, Punjab Home Minister Col (r) Shuja Khanzada said, “More than 100 local and international NGOs are operating in Punjab. Some of these have been found engaged in shadowy activities with unclear funding channels. We are closely watching the suspicious NGOs and we will make public their names as soon as we gather complete information about their funding channels and the masters pulling strings outside Pakistan.”
When asked about the number of closely monitored NGOs, he said, “The number of such organisations is less than a dozen and they include both international and foreign-funded local NGOs.”
Responding to a query about the Ghost NGOs, Shuja observed: The NGOs falling in this category are very tricky in nature as they don’t exist on ground but are listed in welfare organisations data, and getting to their operators is one of the top priorities in cataloguing the NGOs afresh.
The provincial home minister added: Though Punjab government with the assistance of key security services have accelerated the pace of segregating grey and green NGOs but we will not hurry in forwarding any case to the Centre for imposing ban and wait till getting all the relevant information.