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Pakistan has ordered 18 international aid groups to shut down operations and leave the country, a spokeswoman for ActionAid said on Thursday, the latest move against foreign aid groups in the country.
ActionAid, which focuses on education, poverty alleviation and human rights and is headquartered in Johannesburg, said it had received an expulsion notice from Pakistan's Ministry of Interior, but a statement from the group did not say whether the ministry gave any reason for its decision.
A UK-based spokeswoman for ActionAid told Reuters that 17 other foreign-funded aid groups had received similar notifications but would not give their names.
Pakistan's interior ministry did not respond to messages asking about the expulsion orders, and the information ministry said it would check on the matter.
Pakistan-based Baitussalam Welfare Trust has been handing out nearly 130,000 loaves of bread a day to Syrians in Euphrates Shield area since May 2017, head of operations of the charity said on Wednesday.Speaking to Anadolu Agency about its activities in Syria, Mansoor Raja said one of the biggest projects put into practice is the bread factory."We are running this project with [Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority] AFAD at the AFAD's logistic center in Cobanbey towns of Syria’s northeastern Aleppo province," Raja noted.A total of 35 people are working in the factory and most of them are Syrian, Raja added indicating that the project provides jobs to Syrians.The Pakistani aid agency has been working for the Syrian crisis since Jan. 2017 in cooperation with Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), Turkiye Diyanet Foundation and Turkish Red Crescent, he said.A total of 30 ambulances have been donated with the help of Pakistani people to support humanitarian efforts in Syria, he noted.Additionally, many other projects related to shelter and education have been realized in the last 21 months.So far, around 1.5 million garments, 6,000 tents and 65,000 blankets have been donated to the Syrian people, he added.Concentrating more on educational projects for Syrian people, he said: "We are running two schools inside Syria with the help of Turkiye Diyanet Foundation and looking forward to establishing more schools with AFAD and Turkish government."In 2010, Baitussalam Welfare Trust was founded in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.
Pakistani agency gives 130,000 bread loaves to Syrians daily
Pakistan has been clamping down on foreign-funded aid groups for several years, with one shutdown notice last year accusing a group of "pursuing (an) anti-state agenda".
In December, the previous government of the then-ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) issued expulsion notices to 27 international aid groups.
That list also included ActionAid, which appealed the notice, and it was unclear how many of the new expulsion list were also on the previous list of 27.
Pakistan’s foreign minister said Wednesday that he held constructive talks with top U.S. officials and was hopeful the two countries would be able to rebuild relations.Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the comments during a speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace titled Pakistan's New Government: Change or Continuity in Foreign Policy?Qureshi discussed a number of different topics, including the government's commitment to the global Pakistani diaspora and relations between Pakistan and India.His speech followed a round of meetings Tuesday with top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton.The main point Qureshi stressed in his speech was the hope he had in Pakistan’s ability to rebuild relations with the U.S."The last two years I would say were difficult. And let's acknowledge that they were difficult. And one is here to reconnect, and one is here to rebuild what, in my view, is an important relationship to achieve our collective objective, which is peace, reconciliation and stability," he said.This is the second term as foreign minister for Qureshi, who also served under former president Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 2008.Qureshi said he was expecting to encounter hawkish opposition during his U.S. visit but was instead met with open ears."I felt that Secretary Pompeo was ready to listen, which I thought was very positive," he said. "I thought that they [U.S. officials] were ready to listen."U.S.-Pakistani relations had taken a turn for the worse in recent years, with the U.S. announcing a $300 million cut in military aid to Pakistan earlier this year.In January, U.S. President Donald Trump attacked Pakistan on Twitter, saying it was not doing enough to stop terrorism."The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" Trump tweeted.The main sticking point between the two sides has been the issue of the Taliban’s presence in Afghanistan over which the U.S. has engaged in a 17-year-long military operation.But officials of the two countries have met numerous times over the past two months. In September, Pompeo visited Pakistan and met with Qureshi and newly elected prime minister Imran Khan.“The U.S. wants Pakistan to play its role for negotiations and reconciliation in Afghanistan. This is what our policy and desire is. We want peace and stability in Afghanistan, and I have fully assured them in this regard,” Qureshi said at a news conference after meeting with Pompeo in Islamabad.
Pakistani FM hopeful on rebuilding ties with US
"The immediate victims will be the thousands of ordinary Pakistani families who ActionAid has been supporting to claim their rights and build a better life," ActionAid said in a statement.
"Pakistan's decision to shut down ActionAid and other International NGOs is a worrying escalation of recent attacks on civil society, academics and journalists," it said.