Flashback to January 2023, we entered another year expecting to face a number of issues with regard to the state, political instability, polarisation and an expected election year, an increasingly uncertain and declining economy and a fragile humanitarian situation with flood victims from the preceding year. As the year progressed, the challenges we had expected turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg. These set the theme for what the country would face. There was a barrage of human rights abuses. These violations included enforced disappearances, repeated curbs on freedom of assembly, expression and religious belief, violence against women, violation of transgender rights and discrimination. The expulsion of undocumented Afghan refugees resulted in a new category of human rights violations.

To begin with, the freedom of peaceful assembly was restricted when activists joining peaceful protest demonstrations were harassed, arrested and detained. Demonstrations by activists and the relatives of the ‘missing’ persons were mainly met with the use of intimidation, arbitrary detention or force without authorisation. On June 13, demonstrators were dispersed from the Sindh Assembly in Karachi by the police using unlawful force. A video capturing the incident showed police officers in uniform, some with sticks, approaching protesters who were seated.

The protesters were then thrown or coerced into police cars by the police after they had grabbed men and women and dragged them along the ground. In response to electricity and water shortages during the hottest summer on record, Karachi residents started protesting on June 27. Media reports state that police brutally dispersed protestors who were obstructing a road leading to the port by using teargas and batons.

During this year, the grip on the media was tightened even more. Journalist arrests, censorship and coercion increased, according to media workers. Eight persons were detained by the Federal Investigation Agency in the Punjab in April for allegedly planning a social media smear campaign against some government institutions.

Ayaz Amir, a senior analyst, was attacked in July by men who remain anonymous. Journalist and populist supporter Arshad Sharif was assassinated in Kenya, where he had reportedly sought safety after receiving threats in Pakistan. After two months of investigation, a government committee made up of two members concluded that the killing was a premeditated assassination.

TV presenter Imran Riaz Khan was taken into custody on defamation charges under the Penal Code and several sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. The court ordered his release a couple of days after his arrest. He went ‘missing’ soon after he was released and was gone for a long time.

Pakistan is a signatory to several human rights conventions, including those on civil and political rights, prohibition of torture, discrimination and protection of freedom of religion and expression.

Police also arrested political leaders like Shireen Mazari in May. She was detained in relation to a land dispute in 1972. Her family claimed that the arrest was politically motivated.

Violations of the freedom of religion and expression went hand in hand with hate crimes and hate speech, with allegations of blasphemy increasing. A woman was handed the death penalty in January for allegedly sending blasphemous messages via WhatsApp. In February, in the Khanewal district, a man was accused of blasphemy and lynched by a mob. In October, a visitor accused a physically disabled man of blasphemy in Ghotki, forcing him to drown at the shrine where he had lived. In September, in recognition of the multiple breaches of due process in the examination and decision-making of blasphemy cases, the Supreme Court issued a historic ruling urging “utmost care” by “all concerned that no injustice in the administration of justice takes place.”

Gender-based violence was this year’s theme all over the world for 16 days of activism declared by the United Nations. This did not result in a much-needed enactment by the National Assembly although the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill (2021) has been approved by the Senate in 2021. A number of widely reported incidents brought attention to the persistent issue of violence against women. In cases of GBV, conviction rates have been very low. A number of forced conversions were alleged. The alleged victims were mainly women and girls from Sikh, Christian and Hindu communities. The families of victims said they had limited access to justice, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

The Transgender Rights Act of 2018 did not end the violence and discrimination experienced by transgender persons. A senator challenged the Act before the Federal Shariat Court in September, claiming that it could promote homosexuality. The Council of Islamic Ideology urged the government to establish a committee to review the legislation.

In October, the Torture and Custodial Death Act was passed by the Senate. The Act makes it illegal for a “public official or person working in an official capacity” to torture someone. Complaints of torture and cruel treatment have been commonplace. PTI leader Shahbaz Gill famously alleged torture during detention. The concerned authorities denied the claim.

Pakistan is a signatory to various human rights conventions, including those on civil and political rights, prohibition of torture, discrimination and protection of freedom of religion and expression. Pakistan is not a “free democracy,” according to Freedom House, which rated it as “Partly Free” in 2023 with a score of 37/100. The score declining since 2019, has remained stagnant since 2021. While the enactment of laws seems to take the country’s human rights agenda a step forward, the ignorance of these laws makes them largely irrelevant.

The writer is an advocate of High Court, a founding partner at Lex Mercatoria and a visiting teacher at Bahria University’s Law Department