V. THE DRAFT NGO BILL

As a rule, one would expect the formulation of government policy documents to precede the drafting of the legislation intended to give them effect. After all, in recent practice, such documents have been used ostensibly to provide the "terms of reference" to the drafters of legislation. The NGO Policy process does not appear to have served this purpose, however. Rather, the drafting of the legislation intended to implement the policy was begun in 1998, well before the policy process was itself completed. It is tempting to explain this strange timing and evident haste as a government manoeuvre to neutralize the challenge to its authority over NGOs presented by the petition filed by the NGO, BAWATA, challenging the constitutionality of its de-registration under the Societies Ordinance. This stratagem has two advantages from the government's point of view: the proposed repeal of the Ordinance renders BAWATA's petition challenging its constitutionality rather academic, while its re-enactment under a new guise promises to restore a status quo favourable to government interests. The suspicion that this bill is part of a programme to repackage authoritarianism raised by this timing is amply confirmed by an examination of the bill's substantive provisions.