ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: The Ministry of Social Welfare on Tuesday extended the consultation process on the proposed Code of Conduct for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) the second time amid growing indications that the government was willing to negotiate the matter with civil society.

The consultation process has now been extended till Feb 25. Initially, it was to conclude on Feb 15, but was prolonged till Feb 20.

NGOs have reacted sharply to the plan for the code that gives sweeping powers to the government, which they feared, would severely tighten supervision of civil society’s activities under the garb of stopping them from being misused by criminals and terrorists and could be at some stage used by the state to muzzle them.

In the view of these apprehensions, the code, which the Ministry of Social Welfare claims was developed after extensive consultations spreading over a year and half, met strong disapproval from most of the NGOs.

The NGOs have instead recommended in their ‘Position Paper’ on the issue that the code of conduct prepared by the Pakistan NGOs Forum, a representative body of NGOs, should form the basis for further wider and genuine consultations by the government and should be implemented after developing consensus.

The Position Paper states: “The proposed code of conduct is not acceptable to the sector in its present form and spirit and should be withdrawn.”

Most of the leading NGOs had even boycotted the opinion poll conducted by the ministry on internet. The NGOs contended that most of smaller community-based organisations had no access to internet and hence the results of the poll could not be genuinely representative of the views of the civil society.

Sources in the NGO sector claim that Social Welfare Minister Zobaida Jalal has contacted leading figures in the NGO community in a bid to “reach some sort of settlement”. The talks have not been fruitful as yet, the sources claim, adding that it could possibly be the main reason behind further extending the consultation process.

While the federal minister is attempting to pacify the NGOs, there is also talk of getting the proposed code, announced by President Pervez Musharraf, to “express government’s commitment”. A senior official disclosed that a proposal for involving the president was being actively considered.

The position paper developed by the NGOs has questioned objectives of the code and ministry of social welfare’s claim of extensive consultations prior to drafting the code.

“The objective, purpose and intent of the code remain a mystery and prima facie seems mala fide,” the position paper states and adds that the consultative process was flawed and ambiguous.

Rejecting ministry’s claim of consulting 400 NGOs, it said none of the NGOs associated with the Pakistan NGOs Forum, which included some of the leading organisations in the country, were consulted.

Objecting to the language of the proposed code, the position paper said it was evasive, not easy to understand, vague, open-ended and often left reader to use the imagination to interpret terminology of the code in question.

The paper called upon the government to further explain its proposal for legislation to follow the enforcement of the code.

On the issue of enforcement, the position paper said: “The code of conduct usually provides guidelines about professional ethics and does not confer powers to any externals as to how to close down an NGO without adopting due process of law, which is absolutely arbitrary and draconian.”

The paper apprehended that the biggest victims of the proposed code would be the groups involved in advocacy and human rights, as they would always remain under government pressure.