Pakistan, explained.
A demonstration in Karachi in January after a Pakistani court jailed prominent rights activist Imaan Mazari with her husband and fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha for 10 years over "anti-state" social media posts Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images)
International goodwill towards Islamabad has done nothing to loosen its domestic grip on rights lawyers and protesters.
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Pakistan wins diplomatic praise abroad – silencing its critics at homePakistan wins diplomatic praise abroad – silencing its critics at home
Ahead of demonstrations planned for 4 October, Pakistan’s government has reverted to type, clogging Islamabad’s roads with hundreds of brightly coloured shipping containers in an effort to thwart protesters – and making its fear of dissent impossible to miss.
Less visible is what happens to those who defend the people challenging the state.
Human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha remain in prison. Within hours of the Supreme Court granting them bail this month in a case over social media posts, they were re-arrested (Opens in new window) on an older, equally questionable charge.
Abroad, Pakistan’s leaders are enjoying renewed attention for their role as intermediaries in the US–Israel war against Iran, though their efforts have so far achieved little. At home, their crackdown on critics is intensifying.
The massive steel barriers in Islamabad are intended to stop supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan, imprisoned since August 2023, from marching on parliament to demand his release. Authorities have also detained three of his sisters (Opens in new window) and hundreds of party activists, citing public order.
The diplomatic kudos enjoyed by Pakistan’s leaders has little impact on the lives of ordinary Pakistanis and offers scant protection to their critics at home.
Khan, arguably still the most popular political figure in the country, has the profile to command international attention (Opens in new window). By cruel contrast, Mazari-Hazir and Chattha have spent their careers defending people who could barely be further from the seats of power, including those campaigning against the scourge of enforced disappearances (Opens in new window).
In January, the married couple were convicted under Pakistan’s pernicious cybercrime law over social media posts that were critical of the state and its security institutions. On 17 September, almost eight months after what Amnesty International called (Opens in new window) their “arbitrary detention”, the Supreme Court suspended their sentences and granted them bail.
But before the ink was dry on their release papers, they were re-arrested and remanded back to prison on charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act (Opens in new window) that included chanting “anti-government slogans”.
Imaan Mazari, right, with her husband and fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha during a court hearing in December 2025 (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)
While Islamabad’s police commandeer containers from truck drivers and barricade the city’s streets against protesters, the nation’s leaders are basking in their new profile as would-be peacemakers.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took a seat at the diplomatic top table in June, helping to broker the so-called Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, aimed at ending a war now in its eighth month and threatening global economic disaster. China has publicly backed Pakistani efforts.
The agreement is again being discussed (Opens in new window) as the war grinds on, giving Sharif and army chief Asim Munir – seen by many as the most powerful man in the land – international prominence even as their grip tightens at home.
The government has plenty to occupy it beyond silencing critics. It is fighting the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and the separatist Baloch Liberation Army, while renewed airstrikes on targets in neighbouring Afghanistan and border clashes with the Taliban regime have compounded security troubles.
Pakistan is also negotiating (Opens in new window) with the International Monetary Fund for the next tranche of a US$7 billion financing package and a separate climate facility; successful reviews could unlock roughly US$1.2 billion.
Cash-strapped Pakistan has reportedly (Opens in new window) tried to turn its “diplomatic goodwill” into a US$10 billion exchange stabilisation fund, while Washington seeks (Opens in new window) greater involvement in Pakistan’s critical minerals sector.
Economic stabilisation has brought little respite from the accumulated cost of inflation, insecure employment and poverty. Floods, extreme heat and other climate shocks threaten livelihoods and stretch already strained public finances.
The diplomatic kudos enjoyed by Pakistan’s leaders has little impact on the lives of ordinary Pakistanis and offers scant protection to their critics at home.
Mazari-Hazir and Chattha’s client list reads like a register of rights abuses by successive Pakistani administrations, including Khan’s: journalists, ethnic minority activists and families who have spent many years (Opens in new window) searching for disappeared relatives.
The consequences of their incarceration extend beyond the couple. Vulnerable clients are denied legal representation and other lawyers receive a clear warning of the potential cost of challenging the authorities. A succession of charges laid by the government on purported national security grounds can keep a critic occupied, impoverished or behind bars, even when a court grants relief.
The same pressure bears on the media. The Committee to Protect Journalists and eight partner organisations (Opens in new window) recently called on the Pakistani authorities to end restrictions on reporting, interference in newsrooms, communications blackouts and criminal investigations of journalists.
Independent journalists do continue to work, but every investigation, prosecution, or sacking due to government pressure gives others a reason to calculate the high cost of critical reporting.
This is the domestic setting in which Pakistan’s diplomatic ascent should be judged. Leaders’ access to Washington and their attempts at peace brokering may be useful in a dangerous war. That usefulness does not make the imprisonment of rights lawyers, the pursuit of journalists and activists, or the barricading of the capital any less consequential.
Islamabad wants to be heard abroad while making it ever more difficult for Pakistanis to be heard at home.
About the author
Lynne O'Donnell
Lynne O’Donnell is an Australian writer and journalist.
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