PESHAWAR, Feb 11: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has adopted a simplified procedure for the timely scrutiny of the papers of local and international nongovernmental organisations working in 10 districts of the province and issuance of no objection certificate to them.
The provincial home and tribal affairs department has prepared new separate forms for local and international NGOs and foreign tourists in order to avoid insufficient information, resulting in unnecessary correspondence and delay in the processing of the cases, said a press release issued by the department recently.
On the other hand, nongovernmental organisations working in various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which considered NOC condition for visiting the sites of their projects as a hurdle to the timely completion of the projects, have expressed the hope that the government will facilitate them in their work.
The provincial government recently adopted three new working forms and directed Provincial Disaster Management Authority and Provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority to inform all local and international NGOs to send their requests after completing the requirements as indicated in these forms to the provincial home and tribal affairs department for the purpose of visiting the project sites in 10 districts of the province.
The NGOs working in districts like Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Shangla, Buner, Malakand, Swat and Chitral and three southern districts like Hangu, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan need to fill these forms for grant of NOCs for visiting the project sites in these districts at least six to eight weeks in advance for timely processing of such cases.
However, the staffers working in local NGOs said the NOC condition had hampered the timely completion of their work.
Maryam Bibi, who heads Khwendo Kor, a KP-based non-government organisation working in health and education sector for almost two decades, said the government should at least trust the organisations registered with the government for years and quite familiar to local residents and the government.
She said the NOC condition had hampered their work as instead of focusing on project they had to run around for the completion of the process.
She said NGOs, which were working side by side with the government for community development, should not be suspected.
Maryam Bibi said she was not against the NOC condition but wanted the government to facilitate them so that they could get the NOC without much hassle or waste of time.
Saima Munir, programme manager at the Aurat Foundation, said the NOC condition was even more difficult to timely complete the projects initiated in the conflict-hit areas, where the 11th Corps was authorised to give the permission or NOC. According to her, the rehabilitation projects are usually for a shorter period and the NOC issuance takes almost six months.
“NGOs in such a situation are left with very little time to complete projects. NOC is like a hanging sword over our heads as it can be cancelled anytime shelving the project or leaving it incomplete,” she said.
Ms Munir urged the government to facilitate NGOs working in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on various projects in completion of their work on time.
She said her organisation was working in upper Swat on various projects and worked to raise awareness among the community about their rights.
She, however, said the government had enforced the NOC condition on NGOs but it should take the issue of the security of NGO staffers and aid workers, too, seriously. Some NGO workers said the government suspected that some organisations working in the garb of NGOs were involved in anti-state activities and that was why the NOC condition was enforced.
Others suspected that the government was unhappy over the fact that a huge sum of aid money coming to Pakistan under the Kerry-Lugar law was being utilised through NGOs in rehabilitation work and which was why the NGOs were under strict watch.