PESHAWAR, July 27: The participants of a meeting convened to discuss the new proposed law titled Non-profit Organisations (Governance and Support) Ordinance 2002, urged for a greater role for the civil society organizations in order to strengthen the role of the citizens in the development of the society.

The discussion was organized by Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) in collaboration with Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) on Saturday. The PCP has been commissioned by the government to review the laws governing civil society organizations through a memorandum of understanding signed on September 2001 and to propose recommendations, after consulting with all the major stake-holders, in the form of a draft law in July 2002, with a view to create an environment for civil society sector.

The participants observed that the new draft law, if implemented, would replace the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies Ordinance of 1961 and would also amend the Societies Registration Act of 1860. This, they argued, would incorporate amendments to the above-mentioned laws both at federal and provincial level.

The participants were of the view that these laws fell short of the legitimate expectations of the stake-holders and the international best practices regarding public benefit organisations.

They termed the ordinance of 1961 as strict and almost impossible to implement in its present form while the Act of 1860 carried an archaic language and can be improved to increase access to judicial review and reporting and monitoring requirements.

The new draft law envisages setting up of a 15-member National Non-profit Organisation Commission, a statutory body, with representation of all the major stake-holders, who are supposed to administer the law. Furthermore, the commission would operate a public registry of the citizen organizations in all the provinces of the country to facilitate the citizens.

The new draft law, they claimed, would make registration compulsory for all public benefit organizations that apply for or receive any government funds; apply for or receive any foreign fund in excess of Rs 300,000 in a single financial year; solicit or receive any fund from non-members where the funds received in any one fiscal year exceeded Rs 300,000. It would also develop standard for independent verification of public benefit organisations, authorise an agency to conduct the verification for accreditation for tax benefit eligibility. This would be done upon the request of the organisations, they added.