ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court directed the provincial governments on Thursday to submit detailed reports regarding non-governmental organisations and their funding.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja heard a case pertaining to the registration and funding of NGOs. During the hearing, an official of the Law and Justice Commission informed the court that the federation and provinces had not submitted details of NGOs and their funding. Justice Khawaja directed investigation officers to submit complete details of the NGOs as early as possible. Razzaq A. Mirza, the additional advocate general of Punjab, informed the court that as many as 47,403 NGOs were registered in the province.

The court was also informed that around 10,000 were NGOs registered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1,800 in Balochistan. In Sindh, approximately 6,150 NGOs were registered and 2,500 unregistered.

Know more: SC grills govt about lack of information on NGOs

The Law and Justice Commission official said the interior ministry did not provide much information and he himself had obtained details about 63 NGOs. Justice Khawaja remarked that foreign funding was like oxygen for terrorists and terrorism would be effectively eliminated if the government succeeded in stopping these funds.

He said that according to the National Action Plan, foreign funding should be stopped but the government was not working on this.

The commission’s official informed the court that a form for NGOs had been prepared on the court’s direction. The court directed the provinces to complete the forms so that basic information could be gathered from NGOs. The hearing has been adjourned till Aug 20.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2015

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