Pakistan allows 'Save the Children' to resume operations

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today allowed international aid agency ' Save the Children' to resume operations, weeks after its offices were sealed in a crackdown on foreign aid agencies alleging that they were working against national interests.

Police removed the lock placed on the gate of its head office in Islamabad, the global NGO's spokesman Saeed Ahmed told media.

The government sealed the offices of Save the Children earlier this month, alleging that the charity was "working against the interest of the country", and threatened to expel more foreign aid groups for undermining Pakistan's interests.

The move to let the group operate came after hectic consultation and a decision to transfer the control of the NGOs from Ministry of Finance to Ministry of Interior.

Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan had announced this week that all aid groups can work for six months provided they register with officials in three months' time.

Pakistan has toughened its policies towards international aid groups in recent years, accusing them of acting as cover for spying operations.

Officials said the government had come under a lot of pressure from the US which had expressed concern over the crackdown on NGOs, saying Pakistan was only hurting itself by taking action against aid groups.

Meanwhile, Save the Children in a statement welcomed the government's decision and said it would "continue to work as a credible, transparent and accountable partner" of the government of Pakistan.

The global charity has been under intense scrutiny in Pakistan after it came to limelight in 2012 when a doctor, Shakil Afridi, was arrested for carrying fake vaccination in Abbottabad to verify presence of Osama bin Laden on behalf of the CIA.

The group denied having any link with Afridi or the CIA.