In a damning assessment released Monday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has flagged a relentless erosion of civil liberties throughout 2025. The ‘State of Human Rights 2025’ report exposes how expression freedoms were choked, the judiciary’s independence battered, and insecurity rampant across the nation.
Suppression of dissent relied heavily on legal tools like revised PECA provisions, sedition charges, and anti-terror laws, zeroing in on media professionals, activists, politicians, and legal experts. Fear tactics—including threats, forced vanishings, and mobility curbs—have muffled public discourse and concealed rights violations.
The report spotlights amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, granting security forces and military in Balochistan unchecked power to hold suspects for 90 days sans trial or accusation, fostering arbitrary detentions and eroding legal safeguards.
Post-27th constitutional tweak, judicial appointments now bow more to executive whims, weakening court impartiality. Landmark 2025 verdicts shrank democratic avenues: civilians facing military courts and PTI losing reserved seats from 2024 elections.
Militancy and anti-terror drives hit hardest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, inflicting losses on all sides. Persistent issues like disappearances, staged killings, and mass reprisals plague the landscape. Marginalized communities—females, minors, faith minorities, trans individuals—endure assaults and bias, denied fair recourse.
Laborers in mines and cleaners brave fatal risks with negligible safety upgrades. Climate catastrophes ravaged Gilgit-Baltistan under Pakistan’s control, killing scores and wrecking assets; official aid stayed reactive, ignoring long-term fixes.
As Pakistan grapples with these crises, HRCP calls for urgent systemic overhauls to safeguard liberties and rebuild trust in institutions.
