Pakistan is often described as a weak polity because of its poor democratic credentials. Civil society in Pakistan is divided along modern-secular and traditional-religious lines. The conflict between the two segments of civil society manifests itself in many ways because of conflicting ideologies and worldviews. This conflict is deeply rooted in the socio-political history of Pakistan, continuing to grow multifold. The state has increased its power at the expense of civil society and the non-representative power centres control the reins of society and politics. Civil society in Pakistan in its present form draws a vibrant, multidimensional and dynamic but fragmented picture where the divisions are too deep to establish and promote democratic structures and secular attributes. Jayshree Bajoria in his book, Pakistan’s Institutions and Civil Society defines: “Pakistan civil society comprises nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations, think tanks, trade unions, cultural groups, and informal citizen organisations.” In the political context, civil society refers to all organised forms apart from government. A publication of the UNDP in 2009 says that 62 percent of civil society organisations were registered in Pakistan — 56,000 registered organisations and 45,000 active ones, which are working in the present era. But 38 percent of these organizations are unregistered, which include those that have applied for registration or are not interested in registration. This reflects partly the failure of the ‘trickle-down’ model of economic development advocated after WWII. In the 1980s, NGOs became a major phenomenon in the field of development, and emerged in Pakistan in the early 1980s marked by a strong belief and desire in their potential to strengthen democracy and democratic institutions, focusing on issues such as accountability, credibility of the state institutions, and equal distribution and allocation of resources. In practice though, the boundaries between state, civil society, family and market are often blurred. Ishfaq Saleem in his book Philosophical Discourse explains the rise of civil society in Pakistan. “As Ernest Gellner, a scholar, argues, Islamic societies cannot support a civil society at all. Such societies are too ‘client-listic’ and supranational in orientation (since more focused on the Islamic ummah than on the nation-state) to be conducive to the development of a civil society and the people judge their rulers by applying the religious norms of sacred law, rather than the secular principles of a civil society.” Shiekh Kalb Ali, a prominent left-wing political activist and labour lawyer, worked as a joint secretary of the Railway Workers Union under the leadership of Mirza Ibrahim. He shares his views: “Pakistan’s civil society presents a distorted picture and this dilemma has been created by disregard for constitutionalism. Conditions required to create and sustain a western kind of civil society are either missing or very different in Pakistan’s case, therefore the western expectations of creation of democracy, pluralism and openness remain unfulfilled…Civil society can only claim but in reality they cannot do anything because the role of the resistance of civil society organisations is gradually weakening and minimising, especially in the context of structure, environment, values and impact. We can see in the past few years the role of civil society was very much clear and different stakeholders played a very effective role to mobilise the people and create a strong resistance. But presently the scene has changed within no time because most of the people’s organisations and their struggle is linked with groups like students, media, trade unions, etc. All these people, previously, were working voluntarily, which always created a mass movement. The situation is completely different now as student unions are banned and media and political parties are not playing a proactive role and their policies revolve around a donor-driven agenda.” Wajiha Anwar, a comrade working in an Islamabad-based international organisation and having deep knowledge about the socio-political issues of Pakistan says,” I don’t believe that NGOs only do money plundering and don’t work for the betterment of society. If any NGO receives funds from a donor organisation, it is not that easy to misuse it as a proper plan is being implemented. Donors have strict policies as they are aware of these circumstances. On the other side, NGOs claim that their only task is to create social awareness but when people feel that NGOs are not helping them concretely, they lose interest and merely social awareness is of no use to them. Some of the clever participants turn this opportunity to their own favour by manipulating different NGOs to get funds in the name of social work. They know that projects are foreign funded and there is no commitment and sincerity behind it. Most NGOs have more or less become family businesses making big profits…I believe NGOs’ role is to prepare people for change. They empower the people to overcome psychological problems and oppose oppression through these funds. Its role cannot be denied. An NGO is nowadays not expected to deliver directly some benefits to people, but it is needed to motivate people, mobilise resources, initiate leadership, and participate in development programmes for self-reliance.” Aftab Anjum, an activist who belongs to a lower-middle class family, a comrade and a fighter who strongly believes in the socialist principles of the economy and has a long association with socio-political movements of Pakistan says, “Civil society’s organisation component is NGOs, which get foreign funding and have poor or no ideological grounds, democratic norms, and accountability. Their presence at the grassroots level is greater. Ironically, the majority of them are project-oriented and more interested in funding from international agencies. The positive thing is the expansion of these organisations and their struggle at the local level — both the infrastructure and rights issues. The dilemma of the civil society organisations is that their networking, especially at the grassroots level, is very weak and getting even weaker. The civil society phenomenon is urban-based and does not link effectively with the rural areas.” Critics have observed all this about NGOs in Pakistan and so there are as many statements as there are faces .According to one of these critics, “Most of these NGOs are headed by influential politicians, bureaucrats and rich people/elite. These are the people who plunder in the name of NGOs and deprive the deserving people of their rights. There are NGO people who were riding on bicycles in the past and now own more than one vehicle. It’s seen by all of us that those who had pennies in their pocket until yesterday now have accounts in dollars, what to say of accounts in rupees. What are these NGOs and civil society doing? Nothing but plundering money.” Budgets of these donors-driven NGOs are not fixed; it all depends on the programme and the proposal they make, but it could be said it starts from two million to many more. In Pakistan, not more than four or five percent NGOs are funded from foreign countries says Zeeshan Noel, a consultant. I believe the role of civil society in the country is very clear that it is not an alternative to the state and government. Civil society should not emphasise on developing its own structure because it is not possible at all. The role of these organisations should be to support and help marginalised groups through monitoring state and government functioning, develop alternative policies, and mobilisation through social and political education and collaboration. At times, a section of the political class has also supported the civil and military dictatorships and compromised with power-based groups for their own interest. When we claim to have a strong civil society in Pakistan, an important question arises as to where its larger impact in society shows. The state and government institutions also develop their own civil society groups on different levels. Actually, organisations supported by government protect the interest of the state and do not work for the common people. The major concern of the civil society organisations should be to establish their legitimacy and credibility that comes through actions and a process of struggle against the ruling elite. There is a need to re-define and re-structure the civil society framework in the country through a consultative process for future guidelines and directions. The writer can be reached at salmanali088@gmail.com