January 29, 2026 – 1:30 p.m.
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G-11
Statement of Ben Linden
Advocacy Director, Europe and Central Asia
Amnesty International USA
Thank you, Dr. Pirzada and First Pakistan Global for organizing this important event.
I am here on behalf of Amnesty International USA and will use my time to speak more broadly about attacks on freedom of expression and rule of law in Pakistan, and how that ties into the discussion around transnational repression.
First, we continue to witness a crackdown targeting those living abroad who have criticized Pakistan’s government online. Here in the United States, journalists Dr. Moeed Pirzada and Wajahat Saeed Khan, and civil society director Mehlaqa Samdani have each faced charges – life sentences in the former two cases – or investigations based on their online activity. Ahmad Noorani’s family in Pakistan has faced harassment and enforced disappearances, and his investigative website and YouTube channel have been blocked, along with others who have also criticized the government.
Read more: After Australia, Spain to ban social media platforms for children under 16
We have also seen a crackdown on regional activist groups such as the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which has mobilized thousands to peacefully demand justice, accountability, and an end to enforced disappearances. Yet the BYC’s members who have peacefully protested have been arrested, while mobile and internet services are routinely suspended, and media coverage of the protests is severely limited. Afghan refugees face arbitrary detention and an utter lack of transparency, due process, or accountability in regard to their unlawful arrests, detentions, and deportations.
Lawyers and human rights defenders Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha were charged under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) in a bogus case relating to purported “anti-state” tweets. Last week, they were arrested using undue force and the next day sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison. To congressional members and staff in the room, please speak out and tell the government of Pakistan that criticizing government policy on X should not result in prison terms!
Authorities have also used laws and digital technology to restrict freedom of expression. Last year, Amnesty International uncovered Pakistan’s mass surveillance and censorship machine, powered by a nexus of companies based in Germany, France, United Arab Emirates, China, Canada, and the United States. Amnesty International believes that the technology provided by a Chinese State-owned subsidiary is a commercialized version of China’s “Great Firewall”, a comprehensive state censorship tool developed and deployed in China and now outside as well. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s legal system offers no real protection against mass surveillance. Domestic laws lack safeguards, and those that exist, such as warrant requirements under the Fair Trial Act, are often ignored, while authorities acquire ever more sophisticated surveillance and censorship tools from foreign companies.
Read more: Epstein Files Show Imran Khan Referred to as ‘Lion of London Society’ in Diplomatic Emails
Last year, the National Assembly passed the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act 2025, further restricting online expression in the country. More recently, in August, the Anti-Terrorism Act was amended to expand the administrative detention powers, further threatening the rights to liberty and fair trial.
Those here today are welcome to take a copy of Amnesty’s report on Censorship and Mass Surveillance in Pakistan.
These restrictions on freedom of expression are all the more concerning amid a concerted and sustained attack on the independence of the judiciary, right to free trial, and rule of law in Pakistan. In particular, the twenty-seventh amendment to Pakistan’s Constitution poses a grave threat to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. The amendment creates a new Federal Constitutional Court that lacks independence and erodes judges’ security of tenure. The amendment also grants absolute lifetime immunity to the president and heads of the military, paving the way for unchecked and arbitrary use of power and disregard for the rule of law. The amendment was passed in haste, without consultation with civil society, and amid a rise in reports of threats and intimidation against judges deciding key cases involving the ruling coalition and military.
For years, Pakistan’s government has used military courts to silence critics. Idris Khattak was detained in 2019 and forcibly disappeared for months before reappearing, when it became clear he had been tried in secret military courts with limited access to legal counsel. Khattak is a human rights defender (HRD) and a former Amnesty International consultant. His trial by military court demonstrates the unfairness and arbitrariness inherent in the use of military courts to try civilians. He is now 62 and suffering from diabetes without meaningful access to healthcare. We need his voice now more than ever and we are calling for his immediate release.
In the years since Khattak was first detained, military trials have become common; 85 people who participated in the protests following the May 9th, 2023, arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan were sentenced in December 2024 by military courts.
Congress should work with the Trump administration to raise these issues with the government of Pakistan and urge the following:
An end to the abuses of unlawful arrest, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearance in Pakistan, and to all threats against HRDs living abroad;
Amendment of laws restricting the right to freedom of expression, including PECA, to bring these laws in line with international human rights law;
An end to the use of social media bans, and ensuring of uninterrupted access to digital platforms and internet services; and
Amendment of laws and reversal of policies that attack the independence of the judiciary, right to free trial, and rule of law.
Additionally, Congress and the Trump Administration should fulfill the United States’ obligation to regulate, control, and provide transparency on exports of surveillance technologies that have detrimental human rights consequences.
Thank you for your concern with these critical human rights issues and for the opportunity to contribute to today’s important conversation.
