Struggle of civil society organisations in Pakistan for pro-people legislation

This paper is about the creative use of legislative advocacy to protect the rights of civil society organisations. Threatened with a proposed law that would limit their freedoms of association, expression and assembly, a core group of NGOs formed a national coalition to campaign against the law and to draft alternative legislation. The Pakistani NGO Forum (PNF) at present represents over 3500 organisations and plays a role in defining the code of conduct and standards of accountability for NGOs.