KOHAT: Social welfare officer Jaffar Khan has said that no new NGO has been established during last one year after the change of procedure of verification and issuance of No Objection Certificate (NOC) by a high-powered committee working under the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).

Talking to this correspondent, he said that 37 NGOs most of which were funded by international donors had closed their operations. Hundreds of educated people have been rendered unemployed as a result of end of operations of such NGOs for displaced families and Afghan refugees. Currently, only 19 national and local NGOs are working in Kohat, the official said.

Mr Jaffar said that the PDMA took months for verification of the owner of the NGO and its staff and the donor for confirmation before its opening.

He said that prior to this the deputy commissioner was the authority to issue NOC to any NGO. But now a high-level committee had been formed for the job, which included the IGP and provincial heads of all the civil and military intelligence agencies.

Official says process of verification by PDMA taking too long

He said that about 80 per cent of IDPs who were rendered homeless during last about one decade had also returned to their areas, which also affected the people employed by NGOs.

A senior official wishing not to be named questioned that under what mandate an organisation made for the disaster management had been assigned the role of issuing the NOC to NGOs. He suggested that the social welfare department should be made part of the PDMA NOC issuance committee.

FACILITATION CENTRE: The government has turned the building of Milam Centre into a citizen facilitation centre for provision of services under one roof as part of the KP Good Governance Project (GCP).

Briefing the officials of district administration, the project director, Mohammad Javed, said that the centre would be completed with a cost Rs27 million. The site was visited by deputy commissioner Mohammad Zahir Mohmand and district nazim Maulana Niaz Mohammad. He said that under one roof the centre would have the facilities such as issuance of death, marriage, divorce, domicile and character certificates besides route permits, motor vehicle registration, vehicle ownership transfer, arms licence, etc.

Meanwhile, the social and political circles have demanded ban on loading and unloading of goods in Bilitang town bazaar here.

In a statement, district councillor Mohammad Faheem and social worker Sajjad Khan said that the administration was helpless in case of traffic jams. They demanded of the administration to launch an anti-encroachment drive in the area.

Published in Dawn October 26th, 2016