Amnesty | Pakistan

Pakistani authorities have allegedly been surveilling over four million of its citizens, via tools of mass surveillance, acquired from private foreign companies, further clamping down on the country’s cyber landscape, an Amnesty International report revealed on Tuesday. The report, titled “Shadows of Control: Censorship and Mass Surveillance in Pakistan“ alleged that “Pakistani authorities have continued to unlawfully surveil the country’s citizens, including regular citizens, journalists, as well as prominent politicians.” The rights watchdog stated that Pakistani authorities allegedly “use the Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS) to surveil a significant portion of the population’s digital activity through Pakistani telecommunications providers.” The number of phones under surveillance could be higher as all four major mobile operators have been ordered to connect to LIMS, Amnesty technologist Jurre van Berge told Reuters. The report, citing the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), said that tel...

International human rights organisation Amnesty International on Tuesday called upon Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti to “release all detained Baloch activists”. In March, Dr Mahrang Baloch and other Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) members were arrested for “attacking” the Quetta Civil Hospital and “inciting people to violence”, a day after the group faced a police crackdown while protesting against alleged enforced disappearances. The BYC is a Baloch advocacy group working against enforced disappearances since 2018. “I urge you [Balochistan CM] to release all Baloch activists targeted solely for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” the sample letter by Amnesty read. It called on CM Bugti to drop all charges and overturn detention orders against Baloch activists targeted solely for exercising their rights. “End the wider crackdown against activists and protesters across the province by allowing them to exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expre...

Amnesty International and four other human rights organisations called on Pakistan to release human rights defenders in Balochistan and end the crackdown on dissent, according to Amnesty’s website. Last week, the Balochistan High Court rejected constitutional petitions seeking the release of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) Chief Organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch and two other leaders detained under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO). The BYC is a Baloch advocacy group working against enforced disappearances since 2018. Mahrang and other BYC activists were arrested on March 22 for allegedly “attacking” Quetta Civil Hospital and “inciting people to violence”, a day after their members faced a police crackdown in Quetta while protesting against alleged enforced disappearances. A letter dated May 27 was addressed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and signed by Amnesty, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), Front Line Defenders (FLD), the International Federation for Hum...