ISLAMABAD — A spokesman for Save the Children in Pakistan says the government has ordered its foreign staff members to leave the country.

Ghulam Qadri said on Thursday that the order from the Ministry of Interior for the organization's six expatriate staffers to leave came earlier this week.

He said the ministry gave no reason for the expulsion.

The group has come under Pakistani government scrutiny recently because of reports that it helped facilitate meetings between the U.S. and a doctor who helped hunt down Osama bin Laden. The group has vehemently denied any such role.

Qadri says Save the Children has about 2,000 Pakistani employees across the country, and that the expulsion will not hinder its work.

The expulsion was first reported by the British newspaper The Guardian.