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Pakistan: Human Rights Assessments
Updated May 8, 2024
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The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary
republic. As reported by the State Department's 2023
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (also known
as Human Rights Reports or HRRs), Pakistan is the site of
numerous human rights abuses, many of them significant,
some seen to be perpetrated by agents of the government.
According to the 2023 HRR, The government rarely took
credible steps to identify and punish officials who may have
committed human rights abuses. United Nations bodies
and many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) convey
related concerns. In recent decades, congressional
legislation and U.S. law have included attention to the
status of democracy and human rights in Pakistan. The
following sections describe selected areas of concern.
Democracy and C vil4-M tary Re ations
Democracy and constitutionalism have fared poorly in
Pakistan since its 1947 independence. The 2022 HRR
conveyed that, While military and intelligence services
officially report to civilian authorities, they operate
independently and without effective civilian oversight.
The State Department joined other observers in assessing
that Pakistan's February 2024 national elections included
undue restrictions on freedoms of expression, association,
and peaceful assembly, and it condemned electoral
violence, restrictions on the exercise of human rights and
fundamental freedoms. The United Nations, European
Union, and United Kingdom expressed similar concerns.
U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House designates Pakistan as
Partly Free, on a downward trend since 2017, with a
military that intimidates the media and a politicized
judiciary. The Sweden-based Varieties of Democracies
project has classified Pakistan as an electoral autocracy
since 2015 and ranks it 119th of 179 countries on a 2024
Liberal Democracy Index. In early 2024, the EIU
Democracy Index 2023 downgraded Pakistan from a
hybrid regime to an authoritarian regime, saying
Pakistan's regression in 2023 was the worst in the region.
Religious Freedom
Pakistan's population is approximately 96% Muslim. The
State Department's 2022 Report on International Religious
Freedom reports on abuses affecting religious minorities
there-including Shia and Ahmadi Muslims-as well as
the increasing frequency of attempts to kidnap, forcibly
convert, and forcibly marry young women and girls from
religious minority communities, especially Hindus and
Christians. In a 2024 report, the nongovernmental Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said, Violence in
the name of religion has increasingly become the status quo
in Pakistan. Regrettably, the sentiments of majoritarian
Muslims remain sacrosanct and given discriminatory
preference over religious minorities and sects.
The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) also has
expressed concern over continued persecution and acts of
violence perpetrated by state and non-state actors in
Pakistan, some of it fueled by claims of apostasy and
blasphemy. The U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) decried the increasing use
of Pakistan's blasphemy law in 2023, including its
disproportionate use against religious minorities.
USCIRF has since 2002 recommended annually that
Pakistan be designated as a Country of Particular of
Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom
Act for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing,
and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.
The State Department has designated Pakistan as a CPC
since 2018 while waiving any related country sanctions.
Press Freedom
The 2023 HRR states that threats, harassment, abductions,
violence, and killings [including by security forces] led
journalists and editors to practice self-censorship and
follow editorial directives from the government, adding,
Journalists suffered high levels of violence, or threats of
violence, from state and nonstate actors, including political
parties. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) similarly
reports that, in 2023, Government threats and attacks on
the media created a climate of fear, and, Authorities
pressured or threatened media outlets not to criticize
government institutions or the judiciary. Paris-based
Reporters Without Borders' 2024 Press Freedom Index
ranks Pakistan 152nd of 180 countries, down from 150th in
2023, asserting that the political-military elite retains
broad control over the media, and Pakistan is one of the
most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
Freedom of Expression
According to the 2023 HRR, there are serious restrictions
on free expression and on internet freedom in Pakistan. The
law permits citizens to criticize the government publicly or
privately, but court decisions interpreted the constitution
as prohibiting criticism of the military and judiciary. On
the internet, The government uses a systematic,
nationwide, content-monitoring and filtering system to
restrict or block 'unlawful' content, including materials
deemed un-Islamic or critical of the state or military forces.
HRW claims Pakistani authorities routinely use draconian
counterterrorism and sedition laws to intimidate peaceful
critics. Freedom House rates Pakistan's internet as Not
Free. It also criticizes Pakistani authorities for a long
history of using the education system to portray Hindus and
other non-Muslims negatively and to rationalize enmity
between Pakistan and India, assessing that, Past attempts](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govepop0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)