US Senator urges action on Pakistan's human rights abuses in letter to Rubio

Washington, Jan 24 (IANS) United States Senator Mark R. Warner wrote to the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concern over ongoing alleged human rights violations in Pakistan targeting political figures, journalists, and activists, including widespread arrests and instances of transnational repression.

In his letter, Senator Warner urged Rubio to take diplomatic steps and engage with the government of Pakistan over these abuses.

Referring to Pakistan’s 2024 general elections, which were delayed from 2023, Warner noted that polls were associated with instances of violence, as well as allegations of interference and irregularities, as documented by US, international, and Pakistani civil society organisations.

Citing the US Department of State, he said, the elections in Pakistan “included undue restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.”

He highlighted that post-election crackdowns targeted supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – the party that won the most seats in the election, but fell short of a governing majority. While the numbers vary, he said, PTI supporters and members were detained in mass volume both in the lead-up to the election and the months that followed.

“Among those detained are former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was arrested earlier in 2023 in connection to an array of charges, including alleged corruption. Khan’s arrest in particular attracted notable international attention – the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated in 2024 that Khan’s detention ‘had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office’,” the letter detailed.

Warner also raised alarm over recent life sentences handed down against several Pakistani journalists following in absentia convictions, as well as threats to use military trials for civilian detainees and journalists – a process, he said, would fall outside democratic norms.

The US Senator also reiterated serious concerns over ongoing attempts to intimidate or otherwise threaten Pakistani individuals living abroad, including constituents in Virginia, as well as their family members or personal connections in Pakistan. He said “these threats and actions include arbitrary arrests and detentions, as well as instances of violence and broader coercion”, describing it as part of these broader efforts by the Pakistani Government to silence opposition.

“I urge all appropriate investigation and prosecution of any instances of transnational repression that target individuals living in the US and members of the Pakistani American community, and encourage full partnership between US and international partners and allies to investigate and address allegations abroad,” the letter further added.

Pakistan's transnational repression extends beyond the US as critics of the Pakistani government and military are being targeted in other parts of the world.

Earlier on Friday, the United Kingdom's leading daily, The Guardian, reported that Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command is carrying out a probe into a series of "highly targeted" attacks on Pakistani dissidents residing in the UK, which may have involvement of the state using criminal proxies to silence their critics.