LAHORE, March 26: There is no dearth of funds for charity and social welfare works in Pakistan. Representatives of various NGOs stated this during a discussion held by the Lahore Association of NGOs (LANGOs) at a hotel here on Friday with the association president, former ambassador and federal secretary Inayatullah, in the chair. They discussed different issues being faced by the NGOs, including fund raising. They said the people had been generously supporting NGOs by donating large amounts to carry on their social welfare projects only after they were convinced that their money would not be misappropriated and that it would be spent on the purposes explained to them. SOS Villages president Mrs Anwar said there was no dearth of funds for the genuine NGOs provided they performed their duties honestly. She said there were many NGOs that were really working for the betterment of society and the people were ready to help them. Psychiatrist Dr Haroon Rashid Chaudhry of the Fountain House and Mrs Sherazi of the Society for the Care of the Disabled also supported Mrs Anwar and said if the people were convinced that their money would be properly used, they donate generously. Transparency of expenditure by the NGOs was another factor that created confidence among the donors to extend help, they said.

Mrs Sherazi said her NGO had also started a micro credit scheme and she had advanced Rs3.5 million to the poor and there was 100 per cent recovery. Unicef representative explained the role of his institution in assisting the social welfare work.

Mr Inayatullah said the new city district governments and town and tehsil councils had billions of rupees at their disposal for various social welfare and small development works like building of drains, streets and similar municipal works that could be used through the NGOs.

He said international donors like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) mostly depended upon the NGOs for providing funds for various development projects.

Provincial Social Welfare Department and Baitul Maal secretary Saeed Ahmad said there was a large number of NGOs in the Punjab and only 45 per cent of them had registered themselves with the government and 30 per cent of them had their accounts audited.

He said there were about half a dozen laws for registration of NGOs of different categories that had made it difficult for the NGOs to register themselves. The possibility of having one law of registration was being explored, he added.

Ghulam Husain Gondal of Lahore City District Government said the CDG had a scheme to provide 80 per cent funds of the estimated cost of various social welfare works to the NGOs provided they raised 20 per cent of the remaining funds from the people.

The meeting also discussed the role of media for the promotion of the social welfare activities of the NGOs.