Pakistan : Les ONG enjointes à défier le gouvernement

Daily Times
Karachi edition
July 24, 2006

Peshawar : Bushra Gohar, South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAPP) chairperson has urged non-governmental organisations (NGO) to challenge the status quo in order to bring socio-economic and political changes in the country.

"Until this is done, establishment of newer NGOs and holding seminars and workshops will not help the oppressed people of Pakistan." Gohar said at the concluding session of a five day workshop on Strengthening Democratic Governance in Pakistan (SDGP) on Sunday.

SDGP aims at creating awareness about "controlled democracy" among the oppressed sections of society, namely farmers, rural workers, minorities and women. The workshop was attended by a large number of people from various parts of the province.

Gohar said that NGOs in Pakistan had come a long way and now was right time for their self assessment. She said that most organisations were reluctant to act on something that might displease the government or donor agencies.

"We should have an aim, and refuse to budge from that aim for any amount or money or pressure" she said, adding that the establishment has slowly become a business. She claimed that many of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) parliamentarians, after coming to the assemblies, expressed their desire to establish NGOs to earn money.

She criticised the Pakistan People Party and Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz authored Charter of Democracy, saying it was yet another ploy of the military bureaucracy and the United. "Union of the two ousted leaders would not have been possible without the consent of these king makers", she said. She said the MMA too followed the military dictatorship.

Mohammad Riaz, former president of the Peshawar Press Club, stressed the need for political awareness of the masses. He said that any masses movements in the country were being taken over by the military, which never allowed true representatives to rule the country.

Riaz said that political parties in Pakistan were under the influence of landlords and industrialists who took turns to grab the country's resources along with the generals.