RAWALPINDI: Punjab Home Department has directed the district administration to start online registration of NGOs to monitor their financial matters, especially their local and foreign funding.

In a letter to the Rawalpindi commissioner, the home department said the government had promulgated ‘The Punjab Charities Act 2018’ to register and regulate charities.

“The Financial Action Task Force Regime has demanded the federal government streamline and regulate financial transactions being carried out by NGOs operating in the country,” the letter said.

The home department said the Charity Commission had formed a dashboard in partnership with the Punjab Information Technology Board.

“After this, the Punjab government has directed all commissioners to complete the registration of NGOs online as soon as possible.”

For this purpose, the required documents and requests must be submitted by the NGOs from July 5 to 18.

The Punjab Social Welfare Department said any NGO not registered online will not be able to work in the province.

According to a Social Welfare Department official, the registration of 300 NGOs in the Rawalpindi district had been cancelled.

He said 322 NGOs were functional in the district and they had been asked to register themselves under the new guidelines.

He said the district administration and the Social Welfare Department would monitor funding of the non-governmental organisations.

The official said these organisations would not be allowed to work unless they shared their funding details with the provincial government.

He said the Punjab government would assess the work of the NGOs and keep an eye on their funding from abroad and within the country. He said all NGOs having area of jurisdiction limited to one tehsil shall be registered by the concerned assistant commissioner.

“All those charities having area jurisdiction expanding to two or more tehsils of a district shall be registered by the concerned deputy commissioner,” a senior official of the district administration added.

He said the immovable assets/properties of the NGOs will be verified by the additional deputy commissioner revenue of the concerned district.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2020