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akistan’s latest government has been in power for nearly a year now, but little or no improvement has been seen yet in the lives of the people of the South Asian country. In fact, many of its problems have even worsened and it now seems people’s rights are more blatantly and more frequently violated.
Sociologist Nida Kirmani, who says that Pakistan is grappling with a multitude of human rights issues, remarks: “It feels funny to list the human rights issues that people faced in the country in the last year (alone), since there are so many – economic injustice, state violence, repression of freedom of speech, quashing of peaceful protests, and the restrictions on the Internet to name a few. I really don’t know where to begin.”
Human rights defenders in Pakistan meanwhile say that they are facing unprecedented challenges, with their attempts to uphold and defend human rights met with hostility, threats, and even acts of violence.
Sanna Ejaz says that rights advocates like her face persecution and discrimination because of their work, especially those from underrepresented groups.
For instance, says Ejaz, the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) where she is a leading member have both been “labeled as ‘anti-state’ and subjected to persecution for speaking out against the atrocities committed by the state.”
“My fellow colleagues were killed,” she adds, “and I was forced to be a migrant now living in exile.”

“Human rights defenders in Pakistan face a range of threats, from detention and arrest to torture and killings,” continues Ejaz, who is also a co-founder of the Waak Movement, which works toward raising women’s political awareness. “Many have been booked in fake political cases, placed on the exit control list for years, and narrowly escaped death and assassination attempts.”
Many of these rights abuses and violations have caught the attention of the international community. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa last October, there were calls for Pakistan to be suspended from the Commonwealth because of its worsening human rights violations, particularly those connected with its blasphemy laws.
The same month saw Pakistan coming under huge criticism during the second review of its human rights record by the U.N. Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in Geneva.
The periodic review was to ascertain Pakistan’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the country ratified in 2010 and for which it underwent its first review in 2017.
Following the October 2024 review, UNHRC released its findings in which it raised “deep concern about the rise of discrimination, hate speech, hate crimes, mob violence, and harassment against religious minorities” in Pakistan, as well as about the “frequent reports of enforced disappearance, torture, killing, threats, and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders.”
Among other things, it also called for the repeal of the blasphemy law and for Pakistan to “stop restricting freedom of expression, such as internet shutdowns and the blocking of websites and online resources and bans on social media platforms, and to ensure that criminal laws and counter-terrorism legislation are not used to silence journalists and human rights defenders.”
Laws that oppress?
Yet while rights advocates welcome UNHRC’s concern and call for Pakistan to reconsider or change many of its policies and laws, they say that 2025 will not be that different from previous years simply because of how bad things are. They also point out that the latest amendment to the Constitution has 27 clauses that alter the country’s executive, parliamentary, and judicial system.

The 26th amendment to Pakistan’s Constitution was presented to the Pakistani National Assembly on Oct. 20, 2024 and was approved by a two-thirds majority the next day.
Journalist Farnood Alam echoes other observers in saying that the charter changes have essentially stripped the public of rights protection. He points out, though, that even at the local level, similar moves have taken place.
Last May, for instance, the Punjab Defamation Bill, 2024 was approved by the Punjab Assembly and signed into law by Punjab’s acting governor – over the vehement objections of the media community and the general public.
Under the new law, individuals and social-media influencers who are accused of defamation may, without trial, face detention, a fine of up to PKR 3 million (US$10,725), and the blocking of their social media accounts.
Alam says that the law demonstrates the ruling class’s efforts to impose restrictive legislation and is a clear example of the government trying to curb freedom of expression and silence dissenting voices. It is being challenged as unconstitutional in the Lahore High Court.
Thus far, however, it is Pakistan’s blasphemy law that is the most controversial among its pieces of legislation.
Rights advocates say it is also the most divisive and dangerous, and has become an instrument of oppression. According to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) religious minorities are being singled out by the blasphemy law, leading to their arrest, incarceration, and even death.
And while the persecution of the nation’s religious minorities – Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, Shias, and Sikhs – have long been a blight on Pakistan’s rights record, 2024 saw instances of violence and prejudice against them increase.
Alam says that the Ahmadis took some of the biggest blows against minorities last year. He describes Ahmadis as “the most marginalized group in Pakistan since their problems are ingrained in the laws and constitution of the nation, and the local media is barred from covering their struggles.”
In 1974, the Constitution was amended to declare Ahmadis as “non-Muslims.” The persecution of Ahmadis has been justified by this amendment, depriving them of their fundamental human rights.
But in 2024, Alam says, “the situation took a dire turn. In the presence of police, the destruction of Ahmadi mosques and public spaces in towns such as Sakar, Islamabad, Lahore, and other cities. Given how delicate (the issue) is, the media and influential people mostly ignored this flagrant violation of human rights.”
He also notes that Ahmadis were not allowed to celebrate Eid openly last year and were prohibited from performing Qurbani, a sacred ritual in Islam. A massive campaign was launched against Ahmadis in 2024, further exacerbating their marginalization.

Yet religious minorities are not the only ones being subjected to state repression in Pakistan. Indeed, the government has continuously adopted a number of strategies to silence critics, including outlawing political parties and using force against demonstrators.
For example, the sit-in protests in Islamabad, led by the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, were met with brutal force by the government in January last year. There are also usually crackdowns on protests held by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. And a Pashtun national jirga had to go through different hurdles before it could finally be held last October.
Observes Ejaz: “The establishment’s crackdown on PTI is targeting Pashtun supporters of the party, as the majority of those arrested and tried in military courts are Pashtun. This is a clear misuse of power when you arrest a civilian and punish them under a military court.”
In fact, numerous Pashtun and Baloch rights advocates have been detained or thrown in jail. The right to freedom of assembly has been further undermined by the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024, which gives the government more authority to limit or outrightly forbid gatherings for vague reasons.
Given how it treats its own people, it’s not surprising that Pakistan has been accused as being an inhospitable host to Afghan refugees, who have been flocking into the country for decades.
There are now some 1.35 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, although there are hundreds of thousands more who are not on the official lists.
Since late 2023, however, “undocumented” refugees have been targeted for deportation under Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan. The Joint Action Committee for Refugees says that so far, nearly 800,000 Afghan refugees have been “repatriated” from Pakistan to their homeland.
“The majority of refugees sought safety in several Pakistani towns following the fall of Kabul, mainly in Quetta, Balochistan, then in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” comments women’s rights advocate and independent researcher Huma Fouladi. “People at high risk are made more vulnerable by deportation laws, who hide in various locations and lack basic amenities, while UNHCR (the U.N. Refugee Agency) has little access to assistance for them.”
But the worst seems yet to come for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The international rights monitor Amnesty International (AI) says that as a result of a recent announcement by Pakistan’s interior minister that no Afghan refugee will be allowed to stay in Islamabad without a “No Objection Certificate,” some 800 Afghan refugees have been detained in the capital since the beginning of this year.
“The police night raids, harassment and arbitrary detention of hundreds of Afghan refugees, including women and children, in the capital city is part of a larger discriminatory policy against Afghans inside the country,” said AI South Asia Deputy Regional Director Babu Ram Pant. “The requirement that all Afghan refugees in Islamabad must obtain a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) places onerous obligations on them in addition to existing documentation requirements.
The Pakistani government has repeatedly and arbitrarily enacted policies increasing the precarity of Afghan refugees inside the country, leading thousands to return to Afghanistan in the last 15 months, and this newest policy measure has endangered an already at-risk population.”
The worse news is that such trampling on rights of peoples may continue even if Pakistan has yet another change of government.
Ejaz, for one, says that the PTI may be the victim today, but it was on the same page with the deep state when it was in power and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan People’s Party of the current ruling coalition were in opposition.
“The establishment plays the musical chairs game in which parties sit on the chair as long as they toe establishment lines,” Ejaz says, referring to Pakistan’s military, which has long been assumed to be the real power in the country. “They kick up the chair if the party dares to disagree with them.” ◉