Human rights activists denounce Pakistan's crackdown on international charities

Pakistan has ordered 27 international aid groups to shut down their operations in the country, prompting human rights activists to denounce the growing restrictions on humanitarian work and free speech.

Reuters reported on Friday that the Ministry of Interior has given the 27 international organizations 90 days to conclude their operations in the country. Among the NGOs expelled by the ministry were Action Aid, World Vision, Plan International, Trocaire, Pathfinder International, Danish Refugee Council, George Soros' Open Society Foundations, Oxfam Novib, and Marie Stopes.

Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan's Minister of State for Interior Affairs, said that the NGOs were ordered to close because they were doing work in Pakistan "which is beyond their mandate and for which they have no legal justification."

He did not provide specific examples, but he said that the organizations on the list spend "all their money" on administration, are not doing the work they said they were doing, and are working in areas where they were not authorized.

The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), which represents 63 international aid groups, said that 11 of its members had received "letters of rejection" without any reason given.

Plan International, which claims to be supporting over 1.6 million children across Pakistan, said that it would appeal the ministry's decision.

"The organization is hopeful that the appeals process will make it possible for its work with vulnerable and marginalized children, especially girls, to continue in Pakistan," the organization said in a statement.

World Vision said that it is hoping to continue its humanitarian work in Pakistan and also expressed intentions to appeal the decision.

"World Vision is cooperating fully with the Government of Pakistan on this matter and we hope our appeal to this decision will be positive so that we can continue our work with the children of Pakistan," a spokesman told Christian Today.

The spokesman said that the organization is working on various projects in Pakistan including Health and Nutrition, as well as Education and Resilience.

"We worked with approximately 800,000 children since 2015 and fear for their well-being if our programmes are ended. Our primary concern is the continuation of our work with some of the most vulnerable children in Pakistan," the spokesman continued.

Pakistan has stepped up its restrictions on NGOs in recent years by requiring the aid groups to undertake a painstaking registration process and go through multiple bureaucratic hurdles to continue working in the country.

Save the Children was one of the aid groups that was affected by the crackdown in 2011 when the organization was linked to a Pakistani doctor recruited by the CIA to help in the hunt that led to the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad.

In January, the interior ministry issued an order to halt the operations of a dozen domestic groups working on women's issues and human rights operations, but the directive was later overturned in courts.