An Afghan minister said on Saturday he wanted to shut down nearly 2,000 non-government organisations (NGOs) active in Afghanistan because they flout the rules and laws of the country. Planning Minister Ramazan Bashardoost's remarks prompted an NGO umbrella group to voice concern should President Hamid Karzai decide to retain the minister in his cabinet after being sworn in last week to form a new government.
"I took a decision 1,935 NGOs should be dissolved. And I stand strongly behind my decision," Bashardoost told Reuters, saying that his hit list included 260 foreign agencies.
"These NGOs are not co-operating with the government of Afghanistan or the authorities and they do not give reports of the results of their work to the Planning Ministry and they work for their own benefit," he said.
"You cannot even find an Afghan who says these NGOs are working for the benefit of the Afghan people."
The minister's comments could strike a chord among critics who depict aid work as an industry and among those Afghans who resent foreigners living in better conditions than themselves.
But the NGO community was outraged by the minister's characterisation of their work in an impoverished country struggling to recover from a quarter century of conflict.
"We will be extremely disappointed and worried if he would stay on," said Anja de Beer, executive co-ordinator for the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR).
De Beer told a news conference the minister had rejected proposals for a special law governing the scope and requirements for non-profit NGOs operating in Afghanistan.
Mohammad Hashim Mayar, the program co-ordinator for ACBAR, said the NGOs were waiting for a written ruling, but doubted whether Karzai's government would back the minister.
"We don't expect and we cannot imagine that this decision will take place," Mayar said. "I don't think that the government will break its hand with its own foot."
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