{"id":978,"date":"2015-06-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.britishasianchristians.org\/full-previous-archive\/2015\/06\/13\/save-the-children-charity-ordered-to-leave-pakistan\/"},"modified":"2023-04-30T06:52:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T05:52:47","slug":"save-the-children-charity-ordered-to-leave-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishasianchristians.org\/full-previous-archive\/save-the-children-charity-ordered-to-leave-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Save the Children charity ordered to leave Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Our officer Mehwish Bhatti visits the Save the Children offices to learn the truth.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/strong>Neurotic Pakistan authorities have ordered that Save the Children leave the country.  Local police have sealed off their Islamabad offices and foreign staff working for the international charity have been given 15 days to leave the country.  Save the Children have not had foreign staff working in Pakistan over the last 18 months for their safety.<\/p>\n

The Government have said the action taken is in riposte to anti-Pakistani activities undertaken by Save the Children, including alleging the charity were involved in the fake vaccination programme used by the CIA to track down Osama Bin Laden.<\/p>\n

The charity vehemently denies being involved with the CIA or Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, who carried out the programme.The charity has had no foreign staff in the country for the past 18 months in response to the accusations.  The charity was providing employment to 1200 Pakistani people in projects focused on education, food and health, and working in more than 60 districts across Pakistan.  Save the children have operated in Pakistan for 35 years and have been shocked by the accusations.<\/p>\n

A government statement on Friday, quoting Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, said the organisations in question “are operating with support from the United States, Israel and India.” <\/p>\n

The minister said he planned to raise his concerns in parliament.  The statement from the ministry said the government does not plan to ban all NGOs but is working on a plan to regulate and facilitate “legal” ones.<\/p>\n

One Government official told the AFP news agency: “Their activities were being monitored since a long time. They were doing something which was against Pakistan’s interest.”  A police official said that the charity’s phone calls and offices had been placed under surveillance.  Speaking to the Reuters news agency, he added that the charity’s activities were “very suspicious”.<\/p>\n

Condemning the move, a Save the Children official told Reuters that the Pakistan government had been stopping aid shipments entering the country, “blocking aid to millions of children and their families”.  It comes after the Pakistani government announced it was tightening the rules for NGOs, revoking several of their licences.  An interior ministry official said on Friday it had cancelled agreements with at least 15 foreign charities, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, on the advice of intelligence agencies that said the organisations had been “collecting sensitive data” from Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
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Foreign charities have complained that they have been treated with increasing hostility and suspicion in Pakistan, with obstacles to their work becoming ever more difficult especially in the last 6 months.<\/span><\/p>\n


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Acquiring visas for foreign employees has become nigh on impossible, with an additional pressure of official permission to travel outside of cities.<\/span><\/p>\n


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The official stance maintained by Pakistan’s government is that agreements can be immediately cancelled if the charities are found to be involved in activities “considered detrimental to national interest, sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan”.<\/span><\/p>\n


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NGOs have complained that agreements can only be signed off after providing the government with excessive amounts of paperwork and information.<\/span><\/p>\n


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A spate of executions following the lifting of the moratorium on Pakistan’s death sentencing caused a huge amount of criticism from human rights organisations.<\/span><\/p>\n


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