KARACHI: The Sindh government has dissolved another 500 non-governmental organisations for not following the rules and for being dormant for years, bringing the total number of such entities to close to 6,000, it emerged on Tuesday.

According to a notification issued by the provincial social welfare department, so far 5,896 NGOs had been de-registered in three phases and more than 1,200 were being scrutinised.

“All these actions are in pursuance of the implementation of the recommendation No. 8 FATF [Financial Action Task Force] Plan,” an official in the provincial government said.

The FATF recommendation required greater scrutiny of the nonprofits and NGOs to ensure effective security mechanism in the country, officials said.

They added Pakistan was assigned by the FATF with 28 recommendations involving issues of terror financing and money laundering.

The Sindh govt is currently carrying out scrutiny of over 1,200 NGOs across the province

The latest notification said: “Pursuant to Sindh cabinet decision, the 500 [more] voluntary social welfare agencies (NGOs) stand dissolved forthwith under Section 10 of the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance, 1961.”

It said notices were published in leading newspapers requiring all NGOs registered by the respective registration authorities, social welfare ministry under the abovementioned ordinance to furnish their annual audit reports, annual progress reports, election reports, and to get renewal certificates.

“The registration authorities observed that majority of these NGOs or NPOs [non-profit organisations] are reportedly inactive, untraceable and non-responsive,” said the notification.

It further said despite publication of notices in newspapers and ample opportunity provided under the law and rules, no response was received from the inactive organisations. “There are reasons to believe that 500 registered agencies have acted in contravention of their own constitutions, provisions of the ordinance and the rules made under.”

It said the matter was placed before the Sindh cabinet in its Aug 3, 2019 meeting which decided to delegate its powers to the social welfare secretary to cancel or dissolve the NGOs/NPOs that acted in contravention of their constitutions and the provisions of the ordinance and rules.

The officials said the social welfare department had dissolved 4,396 NGOs in the first phase.

Some 188 of such NGOs were registered in Hyderabad district; 248 in Larkana; 272 in Ghotki; 59 in Tharparkar; 236 in district Malir; 328 in Korangi; 43 in Umerkot; 101 in Mirpurkhas; and 211 in Badin districts.

A total of 56 such NGOs had been registered in Tando Allahyar and Tando Mohammad Khan districts each. The registration of 36 NGOs in Sujawal, 576 in Khairpur, 90 in Sukkur, 228 in Kashmore, 167 in Qambar-Shahdadkot and 133 in district Malir has also been cancelled.

Another 1,000 such entities had been dissolved in the second phase before the recent cancellation of the registration of another 500 NPOs.

Some 400 of the 500 de-registered NGOs were based in Karachi’s Central district while the remaining 100 NPOs had their addresses in South district.

The officials said the department was in process of scrutinising the details of another 1,200 NGOs for the same reasons.

“We are scrutinising the details of another 1,200 NGOs and a decision will be made about their fate soon,” said a senior official.

More than 10,500 NGOs, or nonprofits, had been registered with the provincial social welfare department alone. Their number has now come down to less than 5,000.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2020