ISLAMABAD, June 16: Several civil society organizations (CSOs) here on Thursday denounced the remarks of two federal ministers against Pakistani NGOs in the Senate on Monday and demanded them to publicly apologize. At a press conference, representatives of the organizations slammed Minister of State for Interior Dr Shahzad Waseem and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Women Development Nilofar Bakhtiar for denouncing the NGOs for following a foreign agenda while pursuing Mukhtaran Mai case.

The NGOs objected to and condemned the fact that the presiding officer chose not to expunge “untrue, derogatory, slanderous and defamatory remarks” owing to which the remarks had now become part of the permanent record of the parliamentary proceedings.

“We totally reject these falsehoods. We strongly resent such character assassination, which is all the more ironic coming from representatives of a government which is so heavily donor-driven and dependent on foreign loans and grants,” they said in a joint statement.

The representatives belonged to Action Aid Pakistan, Aurat Foundation, Christian Study Centre, Citizens’ Peace Commission, Council of Social Sciences, Pattan Development Organization, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Nomad Gallery, Progressive Women’s Association, Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy, Strengthening Participatory Organization, Sungi Development Foundation, Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SDPI), Women’s Action Forum (WAF) and Sachet.

On the one hand the government constantly reiterated that it was unable to carry out its socio-economic development, gender justice and poverty reduction agenda without public-private-NGO collaboration, while on the other it had adopted a blatant policy of outright confrontation and hostility towards NGOs in general and women rights, peace and human rights advocacy organizations in particular.