Pakistan Watchlist 2025
PRESS RELEASE
Activists targeted, protests stifled, digital spaces gagged in Pakistan – CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist
10 March 2025
- Pakistan is added to civic space watchlist with authorities targeting activists, stifling protests and restricting digital spaces.
- Human rights defenders are arbitrarily criminalised on terrorism charges. Pashtun rights movement banned; Crackdowns on opposition and ethnic minority protests are rampant.
- Journalists are targeted and amended law clamps down on online speech.
Pakistan’s recent criminalisation of activists, stifling of opposition and minority protests, and digital space restrictions have resulted in the county being added to the CIVICUS Monitor watchlist.
The watchlist lists countries experiencing rapid declines in civic freedoms. Pakistan joins United States of America, Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, and Serbia, in the first watchlist of 2025.
The government has brought trumped-up charges against human rights defenders for their activism. Among those targeted recently include Dr. Mahrang Baloch, a leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) and vocal critic of Pakistan’s security agencies. She faces multiple criminal charges including under Anti-Terrorism Act, for organising sit-in across the country and attending gatherings.
Human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir was targeted on terrorism charges for actively supporting legal redress for victims of violence and persecution and advocating for rights of persecuted religious and ethnic communities.
In October 2024, the government used the Anti-Terrorism Act to ban the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM). PTM has mobilised nationwide against human rights violations.
“The charges against human rights defenders like Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir are a political witch-hunt. They are attempts at silencing dissent," said Rajavelu Karunanithi, CIVICUS Advocacy and Campaign Officer for Asia
"CIVICUS calls on the government to drop these fabricated charges immediately and to revoke the ban against the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement.”
The CIVICUS Monitor flags a systematic crackdown on political opposition Protests. In October and November 2024, hundreds were arrested and charged ahead of protests under vague and overbroad laws. The authorities blocked major highways and routes to stifle the movement of protesters. Protests by the ethnic Sindh and Baloch groups were met with suppression by the authorities. These incidents are clear violations of Pakistan’s commitments to uphold civic freedoms.
Journalists have been targeted under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), accused of spreading ‘false narratives against state institutions.’ In January 2025, the government amended PECA to further tighten its control on online speech. The authorities have also continued to block internet and mobile phone services ahead of protests while social media site X has been down since February 2024.
In October 2024, the UN Human Rights Committee reviewed Pakistan’s record on civil and political rights and urged recommendations to protect civic freedoms.
“The crackdown on protests by the opposition and ethnic minority groups and targeting of journalists and digital restrictions are inconsistent with Pakistan’s international human rights obligations. They also go against the recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Committee.
“The authorities must take steps to reverse course and protect the rights to peaceful assembly and expression and bring perpetrators to justice,” added Karunanithi.
Notes to the editor:
On Pakistan civic space rating of Repressed:
In countries with this rating the civic space is significantly constrained. Active individuals and civil society members who criticise power holders risk surveillance, harassment, intimidation, imprisonment, injury and death. Although some civil society organisations exist, their advocacy work is regularly impeded and they face threats of de-registration and closure by the authorities (see full description of ratings). See Frequently Asked Questions about the Watchlist here.
About the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist:
The new watchlist is released by the CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks the latest developments to civic freedoms, including the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, across 198 countries and territories.
The ratings are categorised as either ‘closed,’ ‘repressed,’ ‘obstructed,’ ‘narrowed’ or ‘open,’ based on a methodology that combines several data sources on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression.
Over twenty organisations collaborate to provide an evidence base for action to improve civic space on all continents.