The report releasted last month documents “intimidation, harassment and persecution” of human rights defenders, along with restrictions on protests and the use of counter-terrorism and digital laws to criminalise dissent. It rates Pakistan’s civic space as “repressed,” the second-worst category, citing a pattern of escalating state controls on expression and assembly.

“Since coming to power, the Shehbaz Sharif government has escalated its repression of activists… silencing critical voices,” said Josef Benedict, an Asia researcher at CIVICUS, calling on authorities to “reverse course” and protect fundamental rights.

The report highlights arrests, legal cases and surveillance targeting prominent activists and lawyers, as well as a broader clampdown on ethnic Baloch and Pashtun movements demanding accountability for enforced disappearances. It also documents increasing use of laws such as the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act to pursue online critics and block digital content.

Journalists have faced mounting pressure, including arrests, investigations and alleged attacks, contributing to what CIVICUS described as a “chilling effect” on media freedom. Protest restrictions have also intensified, with authorities frequently imposing blanket bans and using force to disperse demonstrations, per the report.

The findings come against the backdrop of political tensions following Pakistan’s 2024 elections, which the report says were marked by restrictions on opposition activities and media coverage. Despite these concerns, the country was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for a three-year term earlier this year.

CIVICUS said the situation runs counter to Pakistan’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

News Desk

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The post Pakistan’s Civic Freedoms Deteriorate Amid Crackdown on Dissent: Report appeared first on Dissent Today.

The pattern for intolerance of dissent was set even before the new year began. In December 2023, hundreds of protesters from Balochistan, led by activist Mahrang Baloch, marched to Islamabad to demand the recovery of their forcibly disappeared family members. Ranging from elderly women in their eighties to toddlers, the protesters started their sit-in outside the Press Club in Islamabad on December 22, and continued till the end of January 2024. In the freezing cold of Islamabad, the protesters faced not only arbitrary arrests and detention but the denial of humanitarian assistance such as blankets and access to toilets.  In the face of twin hostilities — from the administration and the weather — the protesters were left with no option but to return to Balochistan.

In July, violence was once again inflicted upon the Baloch in Gwadar during the Baloch Raji Machi, where hundreds of people had gathered to demand their civil, political, and economic rights, as well as an end to enforced disappearances. On July 28, at least three protesters were killed by security personnel, and many others were injured. Earlier, roads and the internet were blocked to prevent participation in the protest, and convoys were fired upon.

In the same month, a “peace march” in Bannu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, held to protest the rise in Taliban attacks in the province, faced violence from law enforcement personnel. Authorities allegedly opened fire on the protesters, resulting in two deaths.

In May, three young men were allegedly killed by the paramilitary Rangers in Pakistan-administered Kashmir during a protest march demanding subsidized flour and electricity. The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee, the group behind the protest, stated that the protesters were peaceful, but the government chose to deploy the Rangers, who ultimately used force against them.

Gilgit-Baltistan also saw massive protests in January against the dramatic increase in wheat prices, inflation, poor internet, and human rights violations in the region.

Meanwhile, Pakistan conducted a controversial general election in February 2024, which was marred by allegations of rigging and violence. Terrorist attacks during election campaigns have become a norm in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa over the past few years, and the 2024 election was no exception. Anti-Taliban politicians and parties had to run their campaigns amidst a wave of fear and intimidation, as terrorist attacks in the province increased in 2024.

On February 1, Rehan Zeb Khan, an independent candidate affiliated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was shot dead in a targeted attack; when gunmen opened fire on his car in a market in the Bajaur district. Three other people were injured, and the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack. In January, Malik Kaleem Ullah, an independent candidate for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, was shot dead in Waziristan, along with three others, while going door-to-door.

Two days after the election, former MNA and National Democratic Movement (NDM) chief Mohsin Dawar was shot and injured by security forces during a protest against alleged rigging in his constituency in Waziristan. Four of his supporters were killed. The incident served as a reminder of the impunity enjoyed by security forces in the province. The fact that a former lawmaker could be shot simply for protesting against rigging indicates that no citizen is safe from the disproportionate use of force by law enforcement agencies in tribal areas.

Increasingly, as more and more sections of the citizenry become frustrated by the state’s indifference or outright hostility to their demands for rights, the backlash they face is becoming harsher. The rulers’ perception of all protests as subversion has effectively transformed Pakistan into a security state.

Apart from other ethnic groups raising voices for their rights, the state also views the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) with suspicion. One of its founders, former MNA Ali Wazir, continues to be shunted from prison to prison, on dubious charges.

In October, when the PTM planned its Grand National Jirga (dialogue) in Khyber, the state responded by vandalizing the venue, killing four supporters and imposing a ban on the PTM. The purpose of the jirga was to discuss issues related to the Pashtuns and solutions for peace in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Instead of responding positively to peace initiatives, in a deeply troubled region, the state tried its best to prevent this event. While the government later agreed to rescind the ban, the crackdown on the group continues, with one of its senior members, Haji Abdul Samar, having been arbitrarily arrested and handed over to the Counter Terrorism Department earlier this week.

There wasn’t a single month in 2024 when Pakistan did not witness protests by political parties or members of civil society. And there was probably not a single protest (except perhaps those organized by the extremist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan) that did not experience a crackdown.

In October, when civil society organizations planned the Sindh Rawadari (tolerance) March in Karachi to promote interfaith harmony and protest the extrajudicial killing of blasphemy accused Dr. Shahnawaz Khunbar, their right to assemble was restricted by the imposition of Section 144. When the organizations decided to proceed despite the restriction, many rights activists were beaten and dragged into police vehicles.

There wasn’t a single month in 2024 when Pakistan did not witness protests by political parties or civil society. And there was probably not a single protest that did not experience a crackdown.

 

Protests in Islamabad face perhaps the biggest hurdles. The government’s SOPs include shutting down businesses and schools, as well as cutting off mobile networks and the internet. Containers are placed at all entry and exit points to deter participation. Historically, these measures have led to greater violence and clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement. However, no lessons are learned. This was evident during the PTI demonstration in the capital in November, when violent clashes resulted in the deaths of 12 protesters and several law enforcement officers.

As the year ends, the country sees sustained protests in the restive town of Parachinar, Kurram, with no prospects of peace. What possibly started as a land dispute quickly turned into a bloody sectarian conflict, claiming more than 130 lives. The government’s response of blocking roads in the severe winter months has resulted in a grave humanitarian crisis, with food and medical shortages resulting in the death of over a hundred children.

While the military spokesperson recently held the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government responsible for ensuring law and order, he overlooked the military’s role in promoting sectarianism in the region. Meanwhile, roads in Karachi have been blocked for a week by protesters in sympathy with those suffering in Parachinar. Similar protests against the violence in Parachinar have been staged in Lahore and Islamabad as well.

So how does 2025 look in the context of the right to peaceful assembly? Not very bright, judging by the controversial Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act passed by the National Assembly in September. This proposed law places severe restrictions on demonstrations and public gatherings in Islamabad Capital Territory.

One can only hope that the provinces don’t follow the federal government’s footsteps and violate people’s fundamental right to peaceful assembly.

The protests and crackdowns mentioned above were largely absent from the mainstream media’s coverage, which has a history of overlooking unrest in peripheral regions. Self-censorship and state-enforced restrictions compel the media to turn a blind eye while human rights and civil liberties are increasingly violated in smaller provinces. Instead of giving coverage to the grievances of protesting activists, many voices in the mainstream media amplified state propaganda against them and attributed the protests to a “foreign hand.” Pakistan’s media must stop becoming complicit in the crackdown aimed at silencing dissenting voices in the country.

In 2025, Pakistan’s civil society must not allow these injustices in the peripheries to go unnoticed and should actively demand accountability and an end to the culture of impunity.

Zohra Yusuf and Ailia Zehra

Zohra Yusuf is a council member of HRCP and the Consulting Editor of Dissent Today.

Ailia Zehra is a journalist and the Founding Editor of Dissent Today.

The post How Pakistan’s Peripheries Dissented in 2024 appeared first on Dissent Today.

Despite the treatment he and his family members have endured from the state, Wazir chose to represent his people’s voice in Pakistan’s Parliament, even though the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), the civil rights movement with which he was affiliated at the time, opposes parliamentary politics. His presence in the Parliament meant that the way the state treated Wazir and the importance it attached to his voice and grievances could have gone a long way in healing decades of wounds inflicted on the people of his province by manufactured conflicts. It could also have helped build the trust of the people of Wazir’s constituency in the state institutions that are ostensibly made for the people, by the people. But the right to representation for the 150,000 voters of South Waziristan did not matter. The state decided to punish Wazir for exercising his right to freedom of expression. In doing so, it sent a clear message: that peaceful resistance against state oppression has no space. Worse still, it cemented the perception and grievance of the Pashtun people that Pakistan’s institutions, including its Parliament, have no real room for them or their voices.

When Wazir was arrested in December 2020, he was kept behind bars on around four different charges, despite being granted bail by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He was eventually released two years and two months after his arrest. A few months after his release in February 2023, he was arrested once again in June of that year. He was released only to be re-arrested in a series of cases lodged against him from August to September 2023. While I had the great honor of being his co-accused in three of the cases lodged against him in Islamabad during that period, my gender and domicile made it difficult for our captors to continue my ordeal. However, Wazir continued to be arrested and re-arrested thereafter, facing charges in at least two other cases. Finally, when he was released, he had just a few months of freedom before being subjected to further detention—this time under the draconian Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), first issued in Rawalpindi and then in Gujrat. This cycle of new cases under the MPO began after he was arrested in August 2024 in connection with three different cases in Islamabad—accident, narcotics, and 7 ATA. The lack of outrage over Wazir’s prolonged incarceration reflects our national mindset, which believes that some lives are more worthy of respect and protection than others. This explains why Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers in urban areas are arrested while PTM workers convening for their National Jirga in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are met with straight fire, killing four and injuring many others. Again, impunity reigns.

“It is irrelevant who is in government in Pakistan; so long as power is wielded from behind the scenes, there is no space for people like Ali Wazir. He has the wrong domicile, which allows the state to imprison him on trumped-up terror charges.”

There was a similar disconnect between Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when many of Wazir’s family members were targeted by the Taliban. Islamabad was calling for military operations and narrative-building to justify Rawalpindi’s displacement, murder, and humiliation of the Pashtun people. It was deemed to be in the “greater national interest” and the “need of the hour” to root out terrorism “once and for all.” How many “once and for all”s there have been is now long forgotten. The military has played (and continues to play) the “good Taliban/bad Taliban” game, yet there is zero accountability for public money spent on a series of military operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Wazir has consistently, without any concern for personal consequences, raised his voice against this daylight robbery, the plunder, and the general ease with which the state has dehumanized the Pashtun people.

It is irrelevant who is in government in Pakistan; so long as power is wielded from behind the scenes, there is no space for people like Wazir. He has the wrong domicile, which allows the state to imprison him on trumped-up terror charges or under the MPO. No court can intervene, and no media will provide him with coverage. When he was in jail during his time as parliamentarian, successive speakers of the National Assembly forgot the term “Production Order.” Similarly, no court seems able to grasp the simple reality—that Wazir is neither a criminal nor a terrorist, and he is being punished solely for choosing not to compromise on his principles in the struggle for a life of dignity for the Pashtun people. For a country where there is no political consensus on basic issues of civilian supremacy and the rule of law, it is truly astounding how all political players appear to agree that Wazir must be permanently incarcerated. The courts where Wazir is presented—regardless of their location in the country—also seem to share the unanimous view that sham proceedings must continue. In this situation, more than “judicial reforms,” it appears that Pakistan is in desperate need of the complete dismantling of all its racist and unjust institutions that treat the liberty and dignity of the Pashtun people as disposable.

Condemned if they make it to Parliament. Condemned if they steer clear of parliamentary politics. Condemned if they cry. Condemned if they scream. Perpetually condemned for no reason other than the fact that they can be, because when has mainstream Pakistan ever shown collective compassion for the persecuted from the “peripheries”?

Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir

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

The post Ex-Lawmaker Ali Wazir’s Continued Incarceration is Our Collective Failure appeared first on Dissent Today.