LAHORE, Oct 27: The Punjab Assembly was informed on Monday that as many as 30,023 NGOs in the province were registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
Responding to a question of Syed Ahsanullah Waqas, Industries Minister Ajmal Cheema said that of the registered NGOs, 15,414 were religious, 11,218 social welfare and 3,391 educational and other categories.
Monday’s question hour was about the departments of zakat and ushr, and industries.
Earlier, the opposition boycotted the session for seven minutes in protest against the Legal Framework Order.
He said that under the new dispensation, the societies’ registration process had been devolved to the district governments. There was no legal restriction on these NGOs to submit their accounts and that was why the department had no record of the financial balance sheets.
The NGOs, however, were bound to keep internal accounts for their own consumption. The government has also not received any complaint against these NGOs and there is no reason to interfere in their working.
The minister came under fire from the opposition while responding to another question about the establishment of industries in Lahore region without no-objection certificates from the government. The minister conceded that some 370 factories had been established illegally which were part of the total 1,685 industries established during 1990 to 2002.
At present, the government has no plan to clamp down on these industries or relocate them for the fear that it would increase unemployment.
The minister said that on the contrary the government was trying to legalize their operations under Article 11 of the Industries Act 1963.
On the insistence of questioner Begum Rehana Jamil, the minister said that some suggestions of his department were already with the chief minister, awaiting his approval.
Mr Cheema again came under fire while responding to another question of Sheikh Amjad Aziz of the PML-N about factories established in the residential area of Green Town.
The minister agreed with Mr Sheikh that some industries had been established in the area, but he refused to shift them elsewhere on the pretext of disturbing industrial investment in the country.