ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry has allowed 46 international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) to operate in the country.
A meeting presided over by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was informed on Friday that 132 INGOs had applied for registration under a new policy, of which 46 applications had been approved and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) had been signed with 37 organisations for three years.
The meeting was informed that some applicants were found not falling in the category of INGOs.
The minister said the registration process would be completed within six months.
He said rules were in place to ensure that the INGOs worked under clearly defined guidelines. He said the INGOs which did not meet the criterion would be asked to leave.
Chaudhry Nisar said the INGOs which had applied online and were awaiting approval would continue to operate till all the applications were decided.
He said none of the applications had so far been declined.
The minister said no INGO should be barred from working unless it was found jeopardising security. He said all INGOs would be brought under the new policy through a transparent system.
Re-verification
The minister also announced extension by a month of the amnesty period for aliens to surrender fraudulently obtained nationality, but ordered action against employees of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) responsible for selling the country’s citizenship to foreigners from Sept 1.
The meeting was informed that 18 employees responsible for large-scale issuance of computerised national identity cards (CNICs) to aliens had been identified. It was told that 334 aliens had surrendered their nationality.
A Nadra official said over 56 million CNICs had so far been verified by the authority during the ongoing re-verification campaign within two months, achieving a target of 60 per cent.
The minister said financial benefit should also be given to the aliens who had voluntarily returned the CNICs.
He said the number of verified CNICs would reach 60m by the end of this month and the exercise was likely to be completed in four months.
Moving ahead with strategic anti-terrorism measures, the minister asked the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) for immediate geo-mapping of Karachi and Quetta to help eradicate terrorist footprints from the provincial capitals.
E-passports
The minister ordered launch of the e-passport facility in the country and said a pilot project should begin within three months. The chip-embedded e-passport based on the most modern technology would minimise chances of fake passports.
Chaudhry Nisar said that since 2014 over 2.1m passports had been issued with 10-year validity. The 10-year validity passports, he said, were meant to ease the load at passport offices and limit the trouble of applicants.
He said the passport directorate had generated Rs20 billion for the national treasury, suggesting that part of this revenue should be used for providing e-passports to the citizens.
He asked the Federal Investigation Agency to submit a list by Wednesday with details of the cases in which Pakistan had sought extradition of individuals from various countries. He also called for preparation of a standard operating procedure to pursue the matter on a fast-track basis.
