(Bangkok) - In 2025, Pakistani authorities deployed vague and overbroad laws to intensify their crackdown on media freedom, political opposition, and civil society groups, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2026.
"Pakistani authorities have increased suppression in violation of Pakistan's international human rights obligations," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government should focus on addressing longstanding human rights issues and stop muzzling those who bring attention to them."
In the 529-page World Report 2026, its 36th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices inmore than100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Philippe Bolopion writes that breaking the authoritarian wave sweeping the world is the challenge of a generation. With the human rights system under unprecedented threat from the Trump administration and other global powers, Bolopion calls on rights-respecting democracies and civil society to build a strategic alliance to defend fundamental freedoms.
Pakistani authorities should remove arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression, amend discriminatory laws that promote violence against religious minorities, and halt mass deportations of Afghan refugees, Human Rights Watch said. Pakistan's allies should press the government to revise laws, policies and practices to improve respect for human rights.
Source: Human Rights Watch
