From a human rights perspective, a living wage becomes a fundamental right to ensure that workers not only meet their basic needs but are also able to live a life of dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides the basis for a living wage for every worker in Article 23:

• Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

The implementation of a living wage can be justified on many grounds. Most importantly, it allows us to address several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN. For instance, implementing a living wage will directly contribute to the first two goals—no poverty and zero hunger (SDGs 1 and 2)—and the advancement of decent work (SDG 8). Further, the UN Global Compact, a corporate sustainability initiative in which more than 100 companies from Pakistan participate, ‘encourages companies to promote and provide a living wage as an essential aspect of decent work.’ A living wage is also about the dignity of individuals and their families while outlining employers’ responsibilities to their employees (Werner & Lim, 2016).

Years of neoliberal policies and reforms have made it difficult for governments to pursue policies that favour job creation1. Free market reforms in trade and finance have adversely affected domestic industry and agriculture in developing countries. Moreover, people’s purchasing power in Pakistan has decreased significantly because of high inflation and slow economic growth. This, coupled with a high population growth rate and vulnerability to climate change, has left the successive governments in Pakistan ill-prepared to provide jobs to a growing number of young people.

According to the UNDP’s human development index (HDI), Pakistan’s HDI value is 0.540, which makes it a country with a low human development classification. With an HDI rank of 164 out of 193 countries, Pakistan is only better than Afghanistan and Nepal in the region. Both Afghanistan and Nepal saw years of violence, which is not the case for Pakistan. As mentioned earlier, almost 40 percent of the Pakistani population lives below the poverty line. A government policy that closes the minimum and living wage gap will ensure that the poor can pull themselves out of poverty.

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The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has consistently raised its voice for the rights of the Cholistani people. In its recent fact-finding mission report of South Punjab, several issues related to Cholistan were highlighted, including a major one about alleged irregularities in land allotments. The report captured several testimonies from residents who expressed grievances about land distribution in Cholistan. In 2023, the residents of Cholistan decided to hold a protest to demand fair land distribution. However, the district administration refused to allow the protest.

Meanwhile, the Punjab caretaker government announced in February 2024 a new land scheme with about 26,000 Cholistanis as beneficiaries. Where the scheme was considered a minor success, the relief was only incomplete and temporary HRCP received reports reinforcing alleged irregularities in allotments of land and indicating that certain actors were manipulating local organizations to advance their vested interests in the region.

Considering the factors mentioned above, HRCP decided to conduct a fact-finding mission to Cholistan from 28 to 31 October 2024. The mission comprised Council member Sadia Bokhari, HRCP member and senior lawyer Asad Jamal, and staff members Faisal Tangwani and Salman Farrukh. The terms of reference for the mission were as follows:

• Document the implementation of land allotment schemes for indigenous Cholistanis and identify any irregularities and gaps, including any instances of faith-based discrimination in this context.
• Assess the role of state authorities in allotting land, including but not restricted to the Cholistan Development Authority and revenue officers.
• To assess the role of local rights-based movements engaged in advocating for indigenous people’s land rights in Cholistan.

The mission visited different areas of district Bahawalpur, including Yazman and Channan Peer, as well as various small settlements in Greater Cholistan, each linked to a toba (a large natural or man-made pond used as the main source of water for the residents and their cattle).

The mission interacted with more than 30 respondents in focus group discussions (FGDs) and informal interviews at various locations in Cholistan. FGDs were organized with representatives of as many as five land rights-based organizations, including Cholistan Difah Council, Tehreek-e-Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Cholistan, Voice of Cholistan, Tehreek-e-Aghaz-Huqooq-e-Cholistan UC-75, and the Association of Regional Infrastructure Development. The mission met with members of civil society, numberdars (village officers), lawyers, teachers, farmers, and workers. It also held a meeting with two officials of the Cholistan Development Authority (CDA). Mission members took notes on nearly all their interactions, which were compiled along with transcribed interviews where necessary. The mission also conducted a desk review of publicly available documents to verify and countercheck facts to accuracy.

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Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change. This is because of various factors, including its geographical location, reliance on climate-sensitive sectors, socioeconomic conditions, and general lack of mitigation and adaptation measures required to tackle the impending climate disasters. Flash floods have become common, caused by glacial lake outburst floods in the mountainous north, riverine floods, and urban flooding. Storm surges and cyclones periodically pose risks of coastal flooding as well. Yet, Pakistan also consistently faces short-term and prolonged droughts in its arid and semi-arid regions, making it one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. Rising global temperatures have made heat waves a periodic occurrence. At the same time, air pollution in major urban centres has placed Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad, and Karachi at the top of the world’s most polluted cities. Amid the many obvious environmental hazards and climate catastrophes, issues surrounding land degradation and the loss of biodiversity have often gone unnoticed.

Resultantly, the UN Habitat Pakistan Country Report 2023 places Pakistan as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change. Germanwatch Climate Risk Index placed Pakistan at the top spot as the most vulnerable country to climate change globally, on account of the catastrophic floods of 2022. Using available sources, including Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index (CRI), Pakistan has occupied varying ranks over time. In the CRI covering 2000–19, Pakistan was consistently among the top ten countries most affected by climate change, typically ranking around eighth globally. However, in the CRI 2025 report—which uses the latest data from 2022—Pakistan was placed first among all nations for climate-related impacts in 2022, based on measures of both human and economic losses.1 The climate crisis facing Pakistan, and its current adaptation and mitigation strategies do not suggest a significant change in this status quo. The World Bank estimates that the combined risks of extreme climaterelated events, environmental degradation, and air pollution could reduce Pakistan’s GDP by at least 18 to 20% by 2050.2 This loss in GDP will likely occur due to reduction in agriculture and livestock yields owing to increased floods and heatwaves and destruction of infrastructure. These statistics and rankings consistently highlight Pakistan’s significant vulnerability to climate change, emphasizing the urgent need for adaptation and mitigation measures.

This paper presents an analysis of how environmental rights have historically been perceived in Pakistan, the legislative and policy initiatives that have been taken over the past three decades, the role of the judiciary in advancing environmental rights, and the pathways forward to ensure that the introduction of Article 9A is meaningful, purposive, and effective.

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— Article 18, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In Pakistan, religious minorities continue to face marginalization. The transgressions of their fundamental constitutional rights, mainly the ‘right to profess, practice, and propagate’ religion or faith under Article 20 of the Constitution, by the religious majority have pushed the minorities over the edge. Their exclusion and ongoing victimization have compelled the minorities to prefer living in tight-knit areas that sometimes resemble slums. This report, documenting the violations related to freedom of religion or belief (FORB) from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, shows a picture as grim as in previous reports.

The violence against the minorities has increased. There have been numerous targeted killings of Ahmadis. In one instance, a man was lynched just a short distance from a sizeable contingent of police in the middle of a busy market of Pakistan’s largest city. Places of worship have been partially or wholly demolished by law enforcement agencies, despite some of them having the protection of a high court verdict. Several incidents of grave desecration were reported from all over the country.

Most alarmingly, two individuals accused of blasphemy were extrajudicially killed by the police while they sought police protection from a hostile mob bent upon lynching them. This casts a shadow on our law enforcement agencies. Both victims were Muslims.

Christian and Hindu minority rights activists have repeatedly raise alarms about the forced conversion of young girls in Punjab and Sindh. This report cites numerous instances where the girls allegedly abducted or lured into leaving their homes were under 18, clearly violating the federal and provincial minimum age requirements for
marriage. In some cases, there is a clear pattern of abducting girls and then coercing them into marriage after their conversion to Islam.

In the last quarter of 2024/25, the country watched live-streamed hearings of a writ petition filed by the parents of young men and women who were allegedly honey-trapped into false blasphemy cases. The hearings revealed that the youngsters were criminally entrapped, allegedly with the collusion of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials. Multiple attempts were made to disrupt the court’s proceedings by a ‘private entity’ that the petitioners accused of conducting illegal arrests.

Hate speech has been on the rise. Death threats were directed at the chief justice of the Supreme Court when the court granted bail to an Ahmadi individual. An elected senator was publicly insulted, particularly by some pro-right-wing social media channels, which also questioned his patriotism when he spoke out in defence of religious
minorities. The blatant ways in which these hateful comments were made were unsettling.

The United Nations and other human rights organizations have consistently expressed concerns about the treatment of minorities in Pakistan. Among those raising these concerns was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has specifically highlighted issues throughout the year through its press releases and fact-finding reports.

The report also notes with concern the tilt among the bar associations towards the right-wing forces as they continue to adopt positions favoured by the extreme religious parties over serious matters of fundamental human rights.

On the positive side, the federal government has passed the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025, which establishes the minimum marriage age of 18 for both men and women. In another development, Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan have joined Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in passing laws to establish research-based centres of excellence on countering violent extremism.

The post Streets of Fear appeared first on Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The mission’s terms of reference were to:

1. Assess the state of fundamental freedoms (freedom of expression, assembly, association, and movement) in
   Balochistan, with a focus on recent legal and policy developments impacting civic space.
2. Document the scale and impact of media censorship and threats to journalists, including violence, intimidation, and restrictions on news coverage.
3. Assess the scale of incidence of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and arbitrary detentions, particularly of activists, students and members of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC).
4. Examine the reported repression of rights-based movements and peaceful protest, including the use of anti-terrorism and preventive detention laws against non-violent activists and demonstrators.
5. Evaluate the consequences of Internet shutdowns, closure of universities, and other restrictions on civic life and access to information.
6. Assess the broader impact of conflict and militarization on civilian life, including the effect on education, civil society (including non-Baloch settlers), and the protection of human rights defenders.

The mission took place from 9 to 12 July 2025 and was restricted to Quetta for reasons of security. The team comprised HRCP chairperson Asad Iqbal Butt, co-chair Munizae Jahangir, Balochistan vice-chair Kashif Panezai, Council members Habib Tahir and Sadia Baloch, staff members Maheen Pracha and Fareed Shahwani, and
senior journalist Arifa Noor.

The mission gratefully acknowledges the insights shared by a wide range of respondents, including six political parties, academics from the University of Balochistan, representatives of the Balochistan Students Organization (BSO), members of the High Court Bar Association, activists from the BYC, and diverse civil society actors
such as labour unions, women’s rights defenders and journalists.

The mission also values the opportunity to have engaged with the governor and chief minister of the province, as well as senior civil servants, including officials from the civil secretariat as well as police
and prisons departments.

At the outset, the mission observes that this was at least the eighth such fact-finding mission to Balochistan since 2005. Many recommendations have remained consistent over the course of 20 years with little progress reported by successive missions—a matter that HRCP urges the state to consider seriously.

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Comprising HRCP chairperson Asad Iqbal Butt, co-chair Munizae Jahangir, treasurer and veteran journalist Husain Naqi, vice-chair Akbar Khan, academic and HRCP member Dr Saba Gul Khattak and HRCP staff members Shahid Mehmood and Salman Farrukh, the mission held meetings from 24 to 26 September 2025 with a wide range of civil society—including the press, the legal community, human rights defenders, and families displaced by conflict—as well as with political party leaders, law enforcement officials and senior members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, including the chief minister.

Principally, local communities and stakeholders have highlighted a worrying link between increasing violence, displacement and security operations, and the extraction of natural resources under the proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mines and Minerals Act 2025. In many parts of the merged districts, militants appear to be operating unhindered, reportedly extorting and harassing residents, killing those who refuse to comply, and restricting people’s movement beyond the afternoons. Some reports suggest that law enforcement agencies have ceased to operate in these areas.

The mission is especially concerned about the recent killings in Tirah, in which reportedly over 20 civilians, including women and children, were killed, allegedly under aerial bombardment. The mission has demanded a credible inquiry, urging the provincial and federal authorities to cease shifting blame onto one another. Inadequate compensation to victims’ families cannot be a substitute for state accountability and due process.

The mission notes with concern that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance 2019, an impugned law still in force, continues to legitimise internment centres and preventive detention in clear violation of Article 10 of the Constitution and Pakistan’s international legal commitments. Moreover, decreased judicial and administrative oversight, alongside weak regulatory mechanisms, continue to perpetuate the practice of enforced disappearances, with allegations of thousands of cases reported, despite far lower official figures.

The mission has further documented the harassment of journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders, particularly those advocating against enforced disappearances. The allegation that law enforcement and security agencies have been complicit in forcibly disappearing people who are then traced to internment centres is of grave concern and merits an immediate response from the government.

The mission has also documented serious reservations expressed by the legal community regarding the revival of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, which risk creating a parallel justice system that lacks credibility and undermines the rule of law.

The mission concludes that there appears to be a clear effort to undo the hard-won constitutional merger of 2018, which will not only reverse social and economic progress, but will also prove disastrous for the rights of vulnerable groups, particularly women and transgender persons, living in these areas.

Farah Zia
Director

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While rescue and relief operations are underway, HRCP stresses that these efforts must be urgently expanded, with more rescue teams mobilised and more relief camps established with equitable access to food, shelter, clean drinking water and medical services. Particular attention must be given to the most vulnerable—women, children, the elderly and persons living with disabilities.

The floods also highlight the plight of climate refugees, who have been forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods. The government must recognise and rehabilitate these displaced persons through long-term resettlement plans, access to housing and livelihood support. Failure to do so will only exacerbate poverty, marginalisation and social unrest.

In the medium term, the consequences will be dire, including food inflation, urban migration and the collapse of already overstretched city infrastructure. With much arable land under water and crops destroyed, food supply chains will be disrupted, causing an economic and humanitarian crisis.

HRCP cautions the government that piecemeal responses will not suffice. Fully resourced, empowered and functional local governments are needed to ensure disaster preparedness and rapid response at the community level. Civil defence institutions must be revitalised, early warning systems modernised and climate-resilient infrastructure prioritised. The restoration of wetlands and an immediate end to encroachment on natural waterways are critical steps to mitigating the frequency and severity of such disasters.

HRCP calls on the federal and provincial governments to wake up to their constitutional obligations, demonstrate political will and foresight, and take the decisive and inclusive action needed to prevent Pakistan from remaining trapped in annual cycles of displacement and devastation.

Asad Iqbal Butt
Chairperson

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HRCP chairperson Asad Butt reminded participants that laws curbing freedoms move swiftly through assemblies, while those serving the people languish. HRCP secretary-general Harris Khalique emphasized that colonial systems had reconfigured societies into ‘cores and peripheries,’ treating people as subjects rather than citizens.

In his keynote address, Justice (R) Maqbool Baqer stressed that Pakistan’s judicial system remains designed ‘to control people rather than protect their rights.’ He called for repealing laws that criminalize dissent, embedding compassion into legal practice and safeguarding judicial independence.

In the opening plenary, lawyer Sara Malkani underscored how sedition and preventive detention laws replicate colonial strategies of control, while researcher Nazish Brohi highlighted the state’s continued ‘civilizing mission’ as a colonial practice. Journalist Akbar Notezai pointed out that Balochistan was ‘still treated like a colony,’ citing resource extraction and widespread disappearances. Lawyer Asfandyar Warraich emphasized freedom of assembly as ‘the fulcrum of all rights,’ warning against restrictive new laws on peaceful protest.

Speakers presented abstracts of their research in three subsequent thematic sessions. Speaking on the right to freedom of expression, digital rights activist Farieha Aziz and lawyers Momna Taufeeq, Simra Sohail, Sibghat Sheikh, and Asfand Katchela critiqued the use of PECA and sedition laws as tools of suppression. HRCP Council member Sohail Sangi observed that digital repression was ‘a modern version of colonial controls on the press.’

Lawyers Abira Ashfaq and Mudassar Farooq, cultural rights practitioner Sadia Farooq Azeemi and HRCP Council member Sadia Baloch examined colonial legacies in criminal procedure, land tenure and social control. They called for educational reform, dismantling discriminatory laws and redefining rule of law on indigenous and human rights principles.

HRCP staffer Salman Farrukh and lawyer Aliza Masood highlighted how colonial laws had entrenched forced marriage and denial of women’s consent, while lawyer Hareem Godil traced blasphemy-related provisions from their colonial origins to the abuse of such laws today. HRCP Council member Mahnaz Rahman described the struggles of women against patriarchal and colonial frameworks, while lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed called for judicial sensitization and safeguards to curb the misuse of laws against women and minorities.

In her closing remarks, former HRCP chairperson Hina Jilani emphasized that ‘We cannot cling to either colonial or indigenous authoritarian traditions. The rule of law must be redefined to reflect justice and equality.’ Concluding the conference, Sindh Assembly deputy speaker Anthony Naveed said that it was necessary to critique draft laws governing the rights and freedoms of religious communities to ensure that they fulfilled the function of protecting rather than encumbering vulnerable groups.

Farah Zia
Director

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The report highlights an alarming rise in violence against religious minorities, including targeted killings of Ahmadis and the demolition of protected places of worship. In a chilling development, two individuals accused of blasphemy were extrajudicially killed by the police while seeking protection from hostile mobs. Such incidents underscore the urgent need for reform within law enforcement and accountability mechanisms.

The report also draws attention to persistent forced conversions and underage marriages of Hindu and Christian girls in Punjab and Sindh, exposing the systematic failure to enforce child marriage restraint laws. Meanwhile, the rise in hate speech—ranging from threats against the chief justice of the Supreme Court to public vilification of elected representatives—points to shrinking civic space and emboldened extremist elements.

HRCP notes with concern the increasing tilt of bar associations towards positions aligned with extremist religious groups—a trend that undermines the independence of the legal profession. The report also documents allegations of collusion by state institutions in cases where several hundred young men and women were entrapped in accusations of blasphemy and extorted.

Despite these challenges, the report acknowledges limited progress, including the passage of the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025 and provincial legislation establishing research-based centres of excellence on countering violent extremism.

Among other recommendations, HRCP strongly urges the federal government to establish an inquiry commission based on the findings of the National Commission for Human Rights with respect to entrapment in allegations of blasphemy. The authorities should also monitor those seminaries that are frequently involved in the conversion of underage girls.

Law enforcement forces also need to be better equipped to protect individuals from mob violence, with vital police training in intelligence gathering, crowd management, reading early signals of riots, and community policing. Moreover, swift action should be taken against those who instigate such mobs. As recommended in HRCP’s previous reports, the government must urgently establish an independent statutory national commission dedicated to the rights of minorities, ensuring equal representation for all religious communities.

Asad Iqbal Butt
Chairperson

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Reports from HRCP’s election observers, who carried out spot-checks across 51 constituencies, indicate that the countrywide internet and cellular services shutdown on polling day and arbitrary changes in polling information compromised voters’ access to polling stations. This was particularly true for women with restricted mobility, persons living with disabilities, the elderly, and low-income voters. Of particular concern is the protracted delay in announcement of election results by the returning officers.

Broadly, the polling process itself remained transparent and peaceful. Polling staff were generally well-prepared and well-equipped. In almost all cases, polling agents and candidates were shown the empty ballot boxes prior to polling and the presiding officer was observed stamping and signing the back of each ballot paper before giving it to the voter. The ballot box was in everyone’s sight at all times and voters were allowed to stamp their ballot papers in secret.

However, the post-polling process was clearly unsatisfactory. In a fifth of all polling stations observed by HRCP, the presiding officer did not affix the statement of the count in a conspicuous place for public display or was not seen transmitting a photograph of the result to the returning officer and ECP. It was alleged in many instances that the returning officer’s announcement did not tally with the presiding officer’s count. Worryingly, reports of candidates, polling agents and observers being denied permission to witness the provisional consolidation of results, also surfaced.

HRCP recommends an independent audit of the 2024 elections under the supervision of a parliamentary body. Security and intelligence agencies should play no role in managing the electoral process or its outcomes. Parliament must also debate the utility of the caretaker government scheme. Seamless cellular and internet services must be available on polling day, including after polling has stopped.

The ECP must publish all Forms 45, 46, 48 and 49 in accordance with the Elections Act 2017. On receiving petitions from aggrieved political parties or candidates, the ECP should order ballot recounts in close contests and especially in cases where the number of rejected ballots exceeds the margin of victory.

The integrity of the 2024 elections was compromised, not only by lack of competence on the part of the ECP but also by constant pressure from extra-democratic quarters and questionable decisions by the caretaker government, all of which HRCP has documented in the year preceding the polls. It is now critical for all parties to collectively uphold and protect civilian supremacy through consistent, meaningful and inclusive political dialogue. Indeed, the biggest casualty of these elections has not been any one individual or political party per se, but democratic values, the rule of law and the aspirations of ordinary people.

Asad Iqbal Butt
Chairperson

Access the complete report here.

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