Karachi, 4 September 2025. At a conference convened by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), titled ‘Decolonizing the law: Human rights and legal reform in Pakistan,’ lawyers, journalists, academics and human rights defenders examined how colonial legal frameworks continue to shape Pakistan’s judicial and political systems at a significant cost to vulnerable groups.
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
