Pakistan Shows The Way? Imran Khan Government Orders 18 Foreign-Funded NGOs To Leave The Country

In a fresh move against foreign aid groups in Pakistan, Islamabad has ordered 18 international aid groups to shut down their operations in Pakistan and leave the country, Reuters has reported.

A spokeswoman of the ActionAid, an International aid group, said that 17 other foreign-funded aid groups had received similar notices but did not divulge their names.

ActionAid, which is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa works for improvement in education, alleviation of poverty and human rights internationally has issued a statement in which it has said that the group has received expulsion notice from the Ministry of Interior in Pakistan. The statement did not specify exactly what was the reason behind the Pakistan government expelling them.

The aid group in its statement has termed this move by the Pakistani government as “an attack on civil society and human rights organisations".

"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 the 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.

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 has been clamping down on International aid groups for many years. The government of Pakistan has accused these groups of “pursuing an anti-state agenda”.

Earlier in December, Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) government had issued expulsion notices to 27 foreign aid groups.