Repression Without Borders: How Pakistan Silences Critics Overseas

At a minimum, US agencies should treat credible allegations of Pakistani transnational repression as a national security and civil liberties issue.

Pakistan’s generals have long understood a simple political truth: repression works best when it travels. In 2025, under the tightened grip of Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s coercive toolkit has become more systematic and increasingly transnational.

Dissidents can flee Karachi, Lahore, or Quetta, build new lives in London, Toronto, or New York, and still find that the Pakistani state can reach them: through intimidation, digital harassment, legal choke points, and the most potent leverage of all—family members left behind.

This is not a theoretical concern. Pakistan’s deteriorating human rights environment has been documented in the US government’s own reporting, which describes harassment of activists and threats that extend to families.

In the US State Department’s 2024 human rights report on Pakistan, state agencies are described as routinely harassing activists, including those connected to “missing persons” advocacy, within a broader pattern of intimidation and curbs on civil liberties.

That domestic environment matters because transnational repression typically scales from a home base of impunity: if the state can silence you at home without consequence, it can experiment with silencing you abroad.

Digital Fear and Legalized Censorship

The methods are familiar across authoritarian systems, but Pakistan’s playbook has its own distinct blend. First comes digital pressure: surveillance, doxxing, account reporting campaigns, and the weaponization of “cybercrime” narratives to stigmatize dissent.

Amnesty’s

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