By: Dimitra Staikou
The poet Dinos Christianopoulos, in his poem “The Body and the Worm,” writes: “And what didn’t you do to bury me, but you forgot that I was a seed.” It is truly a blessing if this saying can take shape in the case of journalists — including myself — who have dared to exercise written criticism against Pakistan and have faced, at best, threats and, at worst, persecution and disappearance.
The UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights has released a damning report on transnational repression (TNR). Foreign states are becoming bolder in targeting dissidents in the UK. Pakistan is among the countries ramping up TNR since 2022, alongside China, Russia, Iran, India, and others. MI5 investigations into these threats have risen by 48 percent. Methods include harassment, intimidation, physical violence, and the misuse of Interpol “Red Notices” to silence critics. Committee Chair Lord Alton warns that this is “undermining the UK’s ability to protect the human rights of its citizens and those seeking safety.”
Pakistan’s current regime has been repeatedly linked to actions against exiles abroad. Will the UK now hold Islamabad accountable and stop this export of repression to British soil?
In 2016, Pakistan passed the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) to address issues such as hacking, data breaches, cyber extortion, online harassment, and the spread of false information. In January 2025, this law was amended, giving authorities the power to arrest, charge, and imprison journalists for allegedly spreading misinformation. Additionally, high fines and penalties for “defamation and spreading false news” came into effect. Unfortunately, these draconian laws have now crossed Pakistan’s borders.
Roshaan Khattak, a Pakistani documentarian and human rights activist in exile in the United Kingdom, has publicly spoken out against irregularities and human rights violations by the Pakistani state. His doctoral thesis on enforced disappearances in Balochistan incited the wrath of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and as a result, he began receiving threatening messages while in the UK. Starting in December 2024, some of these threats were signed in the name of the Pakistani state or the ISI. These continued into 2025, including a message on X (Twitter) that read: “Don’t forget even in Cambridge… they can reach anywhere… don’t be foolish…”
The University of Cambridge expelled him from student accommodation, removing his last bastion of safety. This decision left him exposed and provoked strong condemnation from British MPs and international human rights organizations, who saw it as a failure to uphold academic freedom and a capitulation to intimidation.
For decades, Pakistan’s powerful military elite and the ISI have silenced domestic dissent through intimidation, censorship, and abductions. Now they are exporting these tactics abroad. The U.S. State Department has officially acknowledged that Pakistan engages in “transnational repression” to intimidate critics beyond its borders.
Dr. Toqeer Gilani, a U.S.-based political activist and president of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan, has been a vocal advocate for Kashmiri self-determination, challenging both Indian and Pakistani control over the region. His stance emphasizes non-violent resistance and diplomatic efforts, including representation at international forums. His wife, Tahira Toqeer, who remains in Pakistan, is also politically active and vocal on human rights issues in Balochistan. In May 2025, Dr. Gilani reported that local police were harassing his wife with false accusations in an effort to intimidate their family. The ongoing pressure has led Dr. Gilani to express deep frustration and reconsider his position on Kashmir’s independence.
Mohammad Waheed Murad, a journalist at Urdu News known for criticizing the military, was arrested on March 26, 2025, during a raid at his home by men believed to be intelligence agents. He was charged with online terrorism and spreading “fake news,” according to international reports. Farhan Malik, the founder of the independent digital platform Raftaar, was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Karachi for allegedly promoting illegal content against the state on YouTube, although he was later released on bail.
In 2020, two exiled activists from the Baloch minority — Karima Baloch in Canada and Sajid Hussain in Sweden — disappeared and were later found dead under chillingly similar circumstances. Both had fled Pakistan after receiving death threats and had publicly accused the Pakistani military of atrocities in Balochistan. Their friends and families rejected claims of accident or suicide, arguing that the deaths were part of a broader pattern of targeting political dissidents.
In 2021, British authorities foiled a plot to murder Ahmad Waqas Goraya, an exiled Pakistani blogger living in the Netherlands who had long criticized the Pakistani military. A British national of Pakistani descent was convicted for being hired by a Pakistan-based intermediary to carry out the killing. Goraya later revealed that the FBI had warned him — and other critics of Pakistan abroad — that they were on a “death list” compiled by the country’s intelligence services.
During a recent hearing of the U.S. Congress’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, it was revealed that Pakistani critics who have escaped abroad are being monitored and pursued by individuals affiliated with Pakistani embassies or intelligence services. Their families back in Pakistan are often targeted by local police or security agencies. In June 2025, Pakistani-Americans who protested outside the Pakistan embassy in Washington, D.C., faced swift retaliation — with some of their relatives reportedly abducted in Pakistan within 48 hours. These tactics send a chilling message to dissidents: “Expressing your views abroad can put your family at risk.”
In July 2025, authorities also succeeded in blocking several Pakistan-based YouTube channels critical of the military, extending their censorship operations beyond national borders.
Pakistan’s internal political upheaval — especially the suppression of former Prime Minister Imran Khan — has further intensified the stifling of cross-border criticism. Since Khan’s removal and imprisonment in 2022, many of his allies and supporters have fled abroad. Now, Islamabad is trying to silence them too. Pakistani expatriates supporting Khan’s party in the West report growing threats and surveillance.
On July 15, 2025, Zulfikar Bukhari, a close aide to former Prime Minister Imran Khan and PTI’s international affairs/media adviser, testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He claimed that nearly 200 politically motivated cases had been filed against Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi — all designed, he said, to criminalize them and suppress political dissent. He also described severe human rights abuses in Pakistan, including media suppression, erosion of judicial independence, and inhumane prison conditions.
Western intellectuals are beginning to speak out against this institutionalized transnational repression by Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies. In the United States, members of Congress warned that Washington “cannot stand by” while Pakistan tramples civil rights, even suggesting sanctions if the harassment continues. In Britain, MPs from across the political spectrum have highlighted the case of Roshaan Khattak and called for stronger protections for academic freedom.
Unfortunately, this campaign of suppressing dissent and targeting critics in the West is expanding. Analysts warn that as Field Marshal Munir becomes more emboldened, he will continue to threaten and harm critics abroad. I have personally received threatening messages on LinkedIn and Twitter after raising legitimate concerns about human rights and security in Pakistan. Without a strong legal framework for protection, Pakistani exiles and even Western journalists will remain vulnerable to surveillance, intimidation, and coercion.
Pakistan is not acting alone. Its military and intelligence services now join the ranks of Turkey, Iran, North Korea, and China, targeting civil society, citizen activists, and journalists who dare to speak out. These authoritarian regimes aim not only to silence critics — but to break them. It’s a disturbing return to the dystopian logic of Orwell’s 1984.
Dimitra Staikou is a Greek lawyer and human rights advocate who also works as a journalist, focusing on human rights violations in South Asia. She frequently travels to India to stay informed about the political landscape and the evolving geopolitical dynamics between India, China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Her reporting appears in Greece’s leading news outlets, including Skai.gr and HuffPost Greece, as well as on internationally recognized platforms such as Modern Diplomacy and Global Research.
