ActionAid, which has been working in Pakistan for the past 25 years, is calling the move "a worrying escalation of recent attacks on civil society, academics and journalists."
Seventeen other aid groups have also been told to shut down operations, including Plan International which has confirmed it received a letter from Pakistan's Ministry of Interior to 'wind up operations in the country within 60 days.'
“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. If these trends continue, Pakistan’s hard-won democracy itself will be the ultimate victim," ActionAid said in a statement.
“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. If these trends continue, Pakistan’s hard-won democracy itself will be the ultimate victim.”
According to its , ActionAid is ‘an international organisation working with over 15 million people in 45 countries for a world free from poverty and injustice.’
The head office of ActionAid is based in Johannesburg, South Africa and its operations are in Asia, the Americas and Europe.
“We believe the people whose lives our work affects should decide how we’re run.
"And that’s what makes us different. We help people use their own power to fight poverty and injustice. Because that’s how real change happens – for families, for communities, for whole societies.” its website states.
It's not the first time the organisation was asked to close its operations. A number of international NGOs were told to leave the country in December 2017 but had since lodged appeals.
ActionAid CEO, Adriano Campolina, says they are "devastated that this life-changing support is now under threat, and we are taking legal advice on potential next steps. In the meantime, we are providing support to our staff and partners on the ground.
However Plan international says the latest letter from the government is in response to its appeal.
Plan International says: "We are deeply saddened by the government decision and extremely concerned about the impact it will have on communities, particularly hundreds of thousands of children, the organisation is currently supporting, as well as our own staff - who are all Pakistani nationals."
