The situation of human rights in Pakistan () is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic Sharia law and Common law.
Overview The Constitution of Pakistan provides for fundamental rights. The clauses also provide for an independent Supreme Court, separation of the executive and judiciary, an independent judiciary, independent Human Rights commission and freedom of movement within the country and abroad. However these clauses are not always respected in practice.
Although Pakistan was created to uphold the principles of democracy, military coups in Pakistan have been commonplace, and for most of its history after independence the country has been ruled by military dictators who declare themselves president. The 2013 Pakistani general election were the first elections in the country where there was a constitutional transfer of power from one civilian government to another. Elections in Pakistan have been prone to irregularities including vote rigging, use of threats and coercion, and discrimination between Muslims and non-Muslims. Additionally the Government of Pakistan has itself admitted on several occasions that it has absolutely no control over the military of Pakistan and related security agencies.
In 2022, Freedom House rated Pakistan’s human rights at 37 out of 100 (partly free). Violence against women is an important social issue in Pakistan. An estimated 5,000 women are killed per year as a result of domestic violence, with many maimed or disabled. In 2016 the provincial parliaments of Punjab and Sindh, which together comprise 65% of the country's population, independently condemned violence against women and took steps toward reducing its prevalence. Opposition to this type of legislation remains.
According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, an estimated 2,134,900 people are enslaved in modern-day Pakistan, or 1.13% of the population.
Religious discrimination, religious violence, and lack of religious freedom continue to remain serious issues in Pakistan, and they have often been condoned by politicians such as Khawaja Nazimuddin, the 2nd Prime Minister of Pakistan, who stated: "I do not agree that religion is a private affair of the individual nor do I agree that in an Islamic state every citizen has identical rights, no matter what his caste, creed or faith be". This stands in contrast to the position of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, who stated in an address to the constituent assembly of Pakistan, "You will find that in course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as the citizens of the State."
Political Freedom in Pakistan Although Pakistan was created to uphold the principles of democracy, its history has been rife with military coups, and for most of its history after independence, it has been ruled by military dictators who have declared themselves president. The 2013 Pakistani general election was the first election in the country after which there was a constitutional transfer of power from one civilian government to another. The elections were marred by terrorist attacks that killed hundreds and wounded more than 500 and widespread rigging of polls, the highest in the country's recorded history.
Religious minorities were prevented from voting for Muslim candidates after Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization and non-Muslims are restricted in the posts they may contest for, with several of the higher posts being unavailable to them. Although some of these laws were later repealed, religious minorities still continue to face several restrictions in politics.
Although slow but steady progress has been made towards return to democracy in the last decade, many Pakistanis and foreign observers see the military still firmly entrenched in politics with the government playing second fiddle to the military. The government is widely seen as having no control over the armed forces and the Inter-Services Intelligence.
Most of Pakistan's laws are secular in nature, some of which were inherited from the United Kingdom's colonial rule of modern-day Pakistan before 1947. However, in practice, Sharia Law takes precedence over Pakistani law. The Constitution of Pakistan provides for fundamental rights which include freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of information, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the (conditional) right to bear arms. It has been changed several times in its short history, with Islamization being the driving factor. Although the government has enacted a few measures to counter any problems, abuses remain. Furthermore, courts suffer from lack of funds, outside intervention, and deep case backlogs that lead to long trial delays and lengthy pretrial detentions. Many observers inside and outside Pakistan contend that Pakistan's legal code is largely concerned with crime, national security, and domestic tranquility and less with the protection of individual rights.
In 2010, Foreign Policy ranked Pakistan as number ten on its Failed States Index, placing it in the "critical" category with such other failed or failing states as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia. Pakistan consistently figures near the top of the list of failed states year after year.
In September 2015, The Lahore High Court imposed a ban on speeches of Altaf Hussain, the founder and chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a party known for its advocacy of interests of the Muhajir community in Pakistan. The court directed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority and Additional Attorney-General Naseer Ahmed Bhutta to implement a ban on the broadcast of images and speeches of Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain across all electronic and print media till further orders.
Freedom of the press in Pakistan
Freedom of the press in Pakistan is legally protected by the law of Pakistan as stated in its constitutional amendments, but any reports critical of the government policy or critical of the military are censored. Journalists face widespread threats and violence making Pakistan one of the worst countries to be a journalist in, with 61 being killed since September 2001 and at least 6 murdered in 2013 alone. TV stations and news papers are routinely shut down for publishing any reports critical of the government or the military.
Freedom House rated Pakistan as "Not Free" in its report of 2013 and gave it a score of 64 (on a scale of 0–100, with 0 being most free and 100 being least free). The report brought to light widespread intimidation of journalists by various government, military and security agencies with killings allegedly being carried out by the Inter-Services Intelligence. Reporters Without Borders has ranked Pakistan number 158 out of 180 countries listed in its Press Freedom Index of 2014.
In 2013 veteran journalist Hamid Mir, a recipient of the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's second-highest civil award, was shot at by unidentified assailants, thrice wounding him with bullets. He alleged that the Inter-Services Intelligence were behind the attack. His TV channel Geo Tv was shut down by the government for 15 days for airing reports that the ISI may have carried out the attacks.
Websites such as YouTube and many others were in the past blocked by the government for violating blasphemy laws. Websites that are deemed to criticize the government or the military, websites that expose human rights violations of minorities and websites that are perceived as blasphemous are all regularly blocked.
In May 2012, President Asif Ali Zardari signed the National Commission for Human Rights Bill 2012 for the promotion of the protection of human rights in the country.President Zardari signs bill to establish human rights commission , The News International, May 31, 2012, However, it remains to be seen if any positive effects will be derived from this.
In May 2018, a new constitutional amendment was passed that allowed tribal people to access their rights. The amendment allowed the people in tribal areas to enjoy the same constitutional rights as other Pakistanis. The constitutional amendment ended the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), imposed under British rule in the 1850s. Under the FCR, people in the tribal areas were explicitly denied their right to appeal their detention, the right to legal representation, and their right to present evidence in their defence – sanctioning a wide-ranging series of human rights violations.
In 2019, a woman journalist was allegedly murdered by her husband - who was also a journalist - because she refused to quit her job. Urool Iqbal had been living alone at the time of her murder and had only recently filed a complaint against her husband with the police. The Coalition For Women In Journalism founding director Kiran Nazish said: “This case crystalizes the multi-layered dangers women journalists face in many countries, Pakistan being one of them. After speaking to those who were close to Urooj, it is very clear that her job as a journalist was a problem for her partner, who is accused in the fatal shooting that killed the young journalist."
In 2016, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has imposed a complete ban on airing Indian content on local television and FM radio channels, in an effort to crackdown on “culturally-damaging” soaps from across the border. In 2017, The Lahore High Court lifted the ban, claiming that the world had become a global village and asked how long will unreasonable restrictions be imposed. This was overturned and the ban was reinstated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018. In 2019, the Supreme Court of Pakistan endorsed the ban and declined the request of Pemra to air ads of global big brands containing Indian content on the ground that they would damage Pakistani culture. Chairman of Pemra once again threatened cable operators with severe actions against the cable operators airing Indian Channels, a move which was strongly condemned by The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
Provincial inequality Weakness of Justice System Security forces routinely violate human rights in the course of counter-terrorism operations in Balochistan and elsewhere. Suspects are frequently detained without charge and or convicted without a fair trial. Thousands of people rounded up as suspected terrorists continue to languish in illegal military detention without being produced in court or prosecuted. The army continues to deny independent monitors, lawyers, relatives, or humanitarian agencies access to the prisoners.
The 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act, which established Anti Terrorism Court, and subsequent anti-terrorist legislation, has arisen concerns about the protection of fundamental rights.
Extremist groups have persecuted non-Muslims and used some laws as the legal basis for doing so. The Blasphemy law, for example, allows life imprisonment or the death penalty for contravening Islamic principles, but the legislation was passed in October 2004 to attempt to counter misuse of the law.
Provisions of the Islamic Qisas and Diyat laws allow the murder victim's nearest relative or Wali (ولي) (legal guardian) to, if the court approves, take the life of the killer or to agree to financial compensation paid to the heirs of the victim.
Enforced disappearances in Pakistan