14 May 2004	Friday	23 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, May 13: The NWFP industry, commerce and labour department has opposed the provincial government move to hand over registration of various societies, including Deeni Madaris, to the social welfare department, official sources said.

The sources said Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, through a notification issued in Feb last, had ordered the concerned department to hand over the process of registration of societies, including the NGOs and seminaries, to the provincial social welfare department forthwith.

After citing certain legal complications, an official said the industry department had raised some observations and put up a summary to the governor's secretariat to review the notification.

He pointed out that without bringing amendments in the rules of business of the 1860 Society Act by the federal government the provincial government had no legal authority to take a unilateral decision in this regard.

Different NGOs have already opposed the government move as they believed that by increasing the powers of the social welfare department the problems of societies would be further multiplied in the province.

The NGOs claimed that they were against the centralisation of powers. Officials said in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab the industry departments were doing the registration of various seminaries and NGOs.

Under the Society Act 1860 the industry department had been registering NGOs and seminaries across the country. The federal interior ministry through an executive order placed complete ban on the registration of seminaries across the country in 1996, while under the same act the registration of the NGOs had been allowed.

The sources said at present the industry department also registered joint stock companies and non-trading companies under the Company Ordinance 1984. They pointed out that in case the provincial government hand over the registration of societies to the social welfare department the government would have to establish two parallel registrar offices in the province.

An official said at present different organizations could register itself under five different laws - Company Ordinance, Society Act, Social Welfare Ordinance 1961, Trust Act 1881 and Cooperative Societies Act.

Under the Society Act 1860 every society, including seminary and the NGO, has to pay only Rs50 as registration fee and each NGO has to pay Rs1,500 as renewal fee per annum.

He said the government would have to adopt a uniform policy about the registration of the above-mentioned societies, and without accomplishing legal provision the NWFP government could not take unilateral decision in this regard.