On 17 March 2016, Aurat Foundation Quetta organized an in-house session on ‘NGO-State relations: Women NGOs in Focus’, at its office, for its staff and Pakistan Gender Coalition (PGC) members as part of AF’s efforts to provide learning opportunities to its staff and partners. The resource person of the activity was Dr. Aurangzaib Alamgir who is serving as Assistant Professor in Department of Internal Relations at Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS) Quetta.  

Dr. Aurangzaib delivered detailed lecture on the topic and started with the history of emergence of State System. He said that, State System was introduced and established in 1648 through issuance of ‘First International Order’. The order was issued after 80 years of war to keep peace and harmony. He said that, due to State System peace remained till 1914. After WWI, the state system remained intact but anarchy spread all over the world. He said that, United Nations (UN) came into being in 1945 to stop that anarchy. Then the NGO system started in the world.

He said that NGOs should have four characteristics to influence, like, access to the government, support of public, knowledge of regime type (government / political parties) and wait for the suitable time. Explaining the NGO-State relations he said that, there are three types of relationship between both parties: cooperation, confrontation and complimentary. He said that, NGOs of Pakistan are in cooperation and as well as in complimentary mood. He stressed that bureaucracy is the major obstacle in the path of good relationships between government and NGOs in Pakistan.

He informed participants that, ‘Sisters in Islam’ a Malaysian women rights organization is an Islamic feminist organization which works on women’s legal rights according to teachings of Islam and push government to legislate new women-friendly laws by taking on board the religious parties. He said that the organization forced government of Malaysia to legislate and amend the ‘Polygamy’ law in light of Quranic Verses. And, as a result, according to new Law of Polygamy, it is now compulsory for all men to prove before the court of law that why the second marriage is necessary for them. They can marry after the approval of court.

He further said that Pakistan is a very crucial country for outside world due to its geographical presence. Due to external involvement, Pakistan is not only combating with terrorist organizations but also ensuring to control the internal factors as well, like surveillance on NGO etc. He said that US is the highest contributor to UN with bearing the twenty five percent of expenditures of it. Other big countries like China and western world are not contributing as much. He said that, new International Order is in the making and soon it will be declared to change the things.

At the end, participants shared their views and praised the efforts of AF for arranging such an informative session for them. Mr. Haroon Dawood, Resident Director AF, Quetta, thanked Dr. Aurangzaib on behalf of AF for delivering a highly knowledgeable lecture and also thanked PGC members for their presence.