Interior Ministry introduces mechanism to facilitate INGOs relief work in Afghanistan

Islamabad: The Ministry of Interior has introduced an elaborate mechanism to facilitate relief activities of international non-government organizations (INGOs) in Afghanistan.

This was disclosed during the meeting of the Afghan Inter-Ministerial Coordination Cell (AICC) chaired by National Security Adviser Dr. Moeed Yusuf this week.

The officials from the Ministry informed the meeting that the main objective of new measures was to facilitate the humanitarian assistance efforts in war-torn Afghanistan and both new INGOs as well as those already registered will benefit from it.

An INGO applying for registration would be required to submit a credentials verification letter from the concerned embassy, proof of registration in the country of origin, and source of funding along with local residence address and details of its designated staff.

The Scrutiny Committee will complete the process within three weeks. Similarly, the process of issuance of visas has been made less cumbersome and time-consuming.

Time duration for processing visa requests has been reduced to 10 days and entry visas for INGO or International organizations staff wanting to work for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan will be issued without security clearance.

The National Security Adviser appreciated the initiative and said it would immensely help the people humanitarian assistance efforts for the people of Afghanistan currently underway.

The meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, Planning, Finance, FBR, and Higher Education Commission (HEC).