Pakistan central bank surprises with hold on key policy rate

ISLAMABAD: International rights watchdog CIVICUS classified Pakistan as “repressed” in its latest report on civic freedom on Monday, accusing authorities of placing restrictions on social media platforms, stifling protests from opposition parties and criminalizing activists. 

Pakistan’s rights groups and opposition parties have highlighted what they say is growing suppression of their fundamental rights over the past few years. They point to legislations in recent months that recommend hefty fines and jail terms for those spreading “fake news” online, a ban on social media platform X that has been in place since February last year, arrests of opposition leaders and their supporters, and alleged harassment of journalists. 

Pakistan’s government denies the allegations, saying that its legislations ensure data privacy on social media platforms, and it only takes action against violent protesters who take the law into their hands. 

According to the latest report compiled by CIVICUS, an online platform that tracks the latest developments to civic freedoms worldwide, Pakistan joins Congo, Serbia, Italy and the US in this year’s watchlist which “lists countries experiencing rapid declines in civic freedoms.”

“Pakistan’s recent criminalization of activists, stifling of opposition and minority protests, and digital space restrictions have resulted in the county being added to the CIVICUS Monitor watchlist,” the rights body said in a press release. 

CIVICUS classified Pakistan in the “repressed” section, where it said countries where civic spaces are significantly constrained are included. CIVICUS said individuals and civil society members who criticize power holders risk surveillance, harassment, intimidation, imprisonment, injury and death in countries categorized as repressed. 

The press release mentioned the government’s move to ban the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) last year under it anti-terror laws. The PTM is a pro-Pashtun rights group that is known for its criticism of Pakistan’s powerful military. The online platform also mentioned the charges that prominent ethnic Baloch rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch, a fierce critic of Pakistan’s military who blames it for enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in southwestern Balochistan province, faces. 

The army says many of Balochistan’s so-called disappeared have links to separatists while military spokespersons have also variously accused the rights movement led by Baloch of being “terrorist proxies.”

“She faces multiple criminal charges including under Anti-Terrorism Act, for organizing sit-in across the country and attending gatherings,” Rajavelu Karunanithi, CIVICUS Advocacy and Campaign Officer for Asia, said. “CIVICUS calls on the government to drop these fabricated charges immediately and to revoke the ban against the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement.”

It also mentioned the government’s amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) in January, saying that they aim to tighten control on online speech and target journalists. 

“The crackdown on protests by the opposition and ethnic minority groups and targeting of journalists and digital restrictions are inconsistent with Pakistan’s international human rights obligations,” Karunanithi said. 

“The authorities must take steps to reverse course and protect the rights to peaceful assembly and expression and bring perpetrators to justice,” Karunanithi added. 

CIVICUS said it assigns ratings as either “closed,” “repressed,” “obstructed,” “narrowed” or “open,” based on a methodology that combines several data sources on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression.

Over 20 organizations collaborated to provide an evidence base for action to improve civic space on all continents, the platform said in its press release.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) announced on Monday that it has arrested the main suspect in the 2024 Greek boat tragedy, vowing to continue its crackdown against human traffickers who send people to Europe and other countries on illegal sea journeys. 

The incident took place in December 2024 when four Pakistanis died after a migrant boat they were on sank near the Greek island of Crete. Each year, thousands of Pakistanis pay large sums for risky and illegal journeys to developed countries, hoping to find work and send money back to their families. 

The FIA said its team arrested the main suspect, Usman Jaja, from the eastern city of Sialkot. The agency said he had gone into hiding since the Greek boat tragedy took place in December last year. 

“Suspect Usman Jaja tried to send several citizens to Europe via boat,” the FIA said in a statement. “The boat met with an accident in which several youths died.”

The FIA said Jaja was wanted by the FIA’s Gujranwala chapter in more than eight cases, alleging that he was part of an international gang of human traffickers. The agency said it has started an investigation against the suspect, adding that raids are being conducted to arrest others involved with him as well. 

“Our crackdown against elements involved in boat accidents is underway,” FIA Gujranwala Director Abdul Qadir Qamar was quoted as saying by the agency. “All resources are being used to arrest the suspects.”

He said the agency’s intelligence-based operations against human traffickers are underway, vowing that no one would be allowed to play with the lives of innocent people. 

In 2023, hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel capsized and sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek coastal town of Pylos. It was one of the deadliest boat disasters ever recorded in the Mediterranean Sea.

Greece was a favored gateway to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2015-2016, when nearly 1 million people landed on its islands, mostly via inflatable dinghies.

Incidents with migrant boats and shipwrecks off Crete and its tiny neighbor Gavdos, which are relatively isolated in the central Mediterranean, have increased since 2023.