Fallout fears as Pakistan expels foreign aid groups

ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Pakistan’s war on terrorism and natural disasters might stop receiving vital assistance after the government ordered the expulsion of several international aid groups, activists said yesterday.

Pakistani authorities have asked about a dozen international groups to wind up their operations within two months, an Interior Ministry official said, seeking anonymity.

The Open Society Foundation, run by a billionaire American philanthropist, and the ActionAid charity are among the groups that have been ordered to leave, the official added.

The move is part of a drive the government began two years ago after suspicions that some global non-government organisations were being used as fronts for spying by Western countries.

“It will complicate the humanitarian situation for communities displaced by the war or marginalised by the social norms,” said Taimur Kamal, a rights activist in the city of Peshawar.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people who depend on aid for shelter, food, health care and sanitation,” Kamal added, “and the funding comes from the groups being expelled.”

Inayat Khan, an aid worker in the northern town of Mansehra where a killer earthquake in 2005 displaced millions of people, shared the same concerns.

“I am not sure if the government alone can help people still needing assistance more than a decade after the earthquake,” said Khan, who works for a local group being funded by a British charity.

“Expelling groups behind the vital operation will not be appreciated,” said Khan.

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry didn’t respond to queries about how the government would manage the humanitarian fallout of the decision.

The action against aid groups stems from suspicions that the Save the Children charity ran a fake vaccination drive to help America’s CIA find the whereabouts of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

American Navy SEALs flew in on helicopters and killed Bin Laden in 2011 in the compound the al-Qaeda chief had been using in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

Save the Children denied the allegations, but a Pakistani doctor who allegedly led the vaccination campaign is still in jail. –