Sunday, February 8, 2026

Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir

The writer is an Islamabad-based lawyer and human rights activist.

In Islamabad, State’s Apathy on Full Display as Baloch Families Hold...

Human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari writes about Baloch families — particularly women, children, and the elderly — who have been camped outside Islamabad’s National Press Club for over a month, demanding accountability and justice in the face of enforced disappearances and the culture of impunity...

The Untold Plight of Over 700 Jailed Pakistanis Trapped in Blasphemy...

Since August of this year, my husband and I have been representing over a dozen victims of a criminal gang in Pakistan that traps young people in blasphemy cases, leading to their arrest. We have witnessed firsthand the climate of fear in which victim...

Ex-Lawmaker Ali Wazir’s Continued Incarceration is Our Collective Failure

One has lost count of how many times Pakistan’s former lawmaker, Ali Wazir, has been arrested or forcibly disappeared. Even when he was a member of the National Assembly, he was not spared from persistent targeting by the state. It is important to remember...

Pakistan’s Establishment Is Abducting Poets And Plumbers To Silence Dissent

Weeks after the recent protests against the rising prices of wheat and electricity in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, several people of Kashmiri origin in various parts of Pakistan have faced intimidation and threats, according to Kashmiri activists. On May 15, at around 1 a.m., Kashmiri poet and...

Enforced Disappearances of Baloch Students and State’s Criminal Role

In December 2021, an assistant sub-inspector stationed at Secretariat Police Station Islamabad asked students of the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad, to collect personal data/information of their fellow Baloch students. Thereafter, in February 2022, a serving army officer, Major Ghulam Murtaza (belonging to Khuzdar Cantonment)...

Trial By Firing Squad: Prosecuting Civilians in Military Courts is Unconstitutional

Pakistan has been a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) since 23 June 2010. Unfortunately, however, even in 2023, the civilian and military elite have yet to read the Covenant. Article 14 of the ICCPR safeguards the right...

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75 Ahmadis Were Accused...

A Human Rights Observer 2023 fact sheet has revealed that 75 Ahmadis were accused of blasphemy in Pakistan in...

What Will It Take...

This article is part of a series titled "Is there a way forward for Pakistan?" Read more about the...

Pashtun Rights Activist Manzoor...

Quetta - Manzoor Pashteen, the founder of the ethnic rights group Pashtun Tahafuzz Movement (PTM), was arrested by the...

Here’s Why The Results...

This article is part of Dissent Today’s special series on Pakistan’s general elections. Follow the series here.  On Tuesday January 30,...

Can Pakistan Ever Become...

This article is part of a series titled “Is there a way forward for Pakistan?” Read more about the...

Once Above the Law,...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani real estate tycoon Malik Riaz warned Tuesday that his vast property enterprise, Bahria Town Limited, is nearing...

Latest articles

Overlooking Homegrown Hate, Pakistan Hesitates to Call Islamabad Blast Anti-Shia Violence

ISLAMABAD - Just hours before a suicide bomber struck the Khadija Tul Kubra Shia...

How Imaan-Hadi Conviction Marks the Death of Fair Trial in Pakistan

Last week, a trial court in Islamabad convicted human rights lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir...

PTI’s Ambiguous Rhetoric on Taliban Is Dangerous for Pakistan’s Counter-Extremism Efforts

This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Lauren Brown Fellowship. Islamabad -...

How My Daughter’s Trial Exposes Pakistan’s Assault on Human Rights

My daughter, a human rights lawyer, and her husband are currently on trial in...