PESHAWAR, April 3: After the US government’s adoption of measures to curb illegal money transactions among terrorist groups, charities from the Middle East and other countries have begun to avoid sending cash donations for charity work, NGO officials in Pakistan revealed. An NGO, Qatar Charitable Society (QCS), had closed its offices in Pakistan, revealed relief workers, while growing financial travails had led the Saudi-based NGO, the World Assembly for Muslim Youth (WAMY), to curtail its activities and shift its regional headquarters from Peshawar to Islamabad.
WAMY was only running a small seminary on the outskirts of Peshawar now, its officials reported.It has abandoned relief activities in refugee camps scattered in the NWFP and tribal areas.
A leading Middle East-based NGO, which had long been running community welfare schemes catering to the needs of refugees in Pakistan and the displaced in Afghanistan has abandoned the construction of mosques as well as water supply schemes from shortage of funds.
“Our management has directed us not to accept new projects”, a worker of the NGO said. Paucity of funds has forced the management to stop the construction of new mosques. Only the ongoing schemes would be completed, he continued.
The hurdles put into place in the transaction of money from abroad after Sept. 11 as well as the host country’s harsh policy had made their job difficult, Islamic NGOs relief workers complained.
“Charities in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain have stopped sending donations. Donors fear a strong backlash from the US government,” an official of a Kuwaiti-based relief agency, wishing to remain anonymous, explained.
Relief workers complained of intelligence operatives visiting their offices unnecessarily, closely monitoring their movements. Western NGOs, on the other hand, were exempt from such formalities.
Apart from providing food to Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the Middle-East-based relief agencies had constructed over 1,600 mosques and seminaries in different parts of the country. The latter, an official of the Afghan Commissionerate believes, was not their mandate.
Some of the relief agencies were receiving millions of dollars in the form of donations and Zakat through non-banking channels from donors in Middle East and other countries every year, senior officials believed. Since the government, in collaboration with some other international bodies, has adopted measures to block money transactions through non-banking channels a remarkable shortfall had been registered in Hawala business, Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Peshawar, Malik Naveed revealed. Adding, “But Hawala is still a big issue.”
The US government had created a Financial Crime Enforcement Network to monitor the transaction of $ 10,000 and above through banks, he continued.
The US government has been focusing on charities and non governmental organisations, which, it believes, raise, collect and distribute funds to terrorist groups.
The eight Middle East-based relief agencies that are still functioning in Pakistan include, the Lajnat Al-Dawa Al Islamiah, Saudi Relief Committee for Afghanistan, Saudi Red Crescent Society, WAMY, Kuwait Joint Relief Committee, Afghan Support Committee and the International Islamic Relief Organisation. Since the US began its war against terrorism in the region, state agencies have arrested many Arab workers associated with the Kuwaiti-based Afghan Support Committee, WAMY, QCS and other organisations for alleged links to the Al Qaeda. Many of them have been shifted to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for interrogation.