Pakistan

Ever since Pakistan’s independence in 1947, the struggle for democracy and human rights has been difficult. Steady democratic governance has been lacking, with no prime minister in its history having been able to serve a full term, alongside interventions by non-democratic actors like the military. Despite experiencing improvements in the state of democratic institutions and human rights in the first decade of the 2000s, in the second decade and onwards, this pattern seems to have reversed. According to the V-Dem Institute’s “Liberal Democracy Index”, since 2013, Pakistan has seen gradual and steady autocratization. Presently, democracy in Pakistan is increasingly threatened, and the state of human rights remains precarious amid multiple political crises that have short and long-term causes. One such crisis occurred in 2021, when the then-Prime Minister Imran Khan attempted to override the vote of no-confidence taken against him by dissolving the parliament.

The level of academic freedom in Pakistan continues to mirror the deterioration of its democratic institutions and the rights of citizens. Academic freedom in the country has always been limited and is currently below the world average, according to new data from the Academic Freedom Index 2025. Scholars at Risk, in the Free to Think 2025 report, noted that scholars and university students, particularly those of Baloch ethnicity, faced attacks on their academic freedom and freedom of expression, such as abductions, assaults, and disciplinary actions, which have drastically impacted their lives and livelihoods.

The state of democracy and academic freedom is also impacted by several long-term factors, such as the ongoing military conflict with India, as well as the conflict between state forces and non-state paramilitary and terrorist groups. Continuous military conflict has meant that the vaguely-worded laws on terrorism and sedition that have roots going all the way back to the era of British colonial rule have been used and abused by several governments. Additionally, the vast gender inequality that exists in Pakistani society works to systematically exclude women from public spaces, restrict their access to education, and prevent them from exercising their fundamental human rights. On top of these long-term trends, in recent years, Pakistan has experienced political tumult as a result of the deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions in the country, which intensified the conflict between the government and the political and societal opposition. All of these factors have created an unsuitable political environment for the enjoyment of democratic rights and academic freedom.

The policies of the government and law enforcement are one of the main sources of the deterioration of academic freedom in Pakistan. For example, in a move that further centralized governmental power, a bill passed in July of 2023 increased the power of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) over universities and tightened the control of the government over the HEC itself. Additionally, in 2024-25, several new laws and budgetary decisions accelerated the decline of both institutional and financial autonomy. Most recently, the Sindh Assembly passed the Universities Amendment Bill 2025, allowing bureaucrats and non-academics to serve as vice-chancellors, which inevitably leads to increasing political oversight of universities. This triggered province-wide boycotts and protests, such as those led by the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations, including suspension of classes. Furthermore, since 2018, the Higher Education Commission’s federal funding remained stagnant, and in 2024, the federal government announced that provincial governments would bear financial responsibilities for their universities. The recurring grant was reduced from PKR 65 billion to PKR 25 billion, cutting research budgets and causing salary delays.

Aside from targeting institutions, the government also targets individual students and academics at schools and universities. In 2020 and 2021, it was reported that “security forces arrested at least 170 university students and personnel and 240 school students and personnel for participating in education-related protests”. In the past, those detained by security forces have been forcefully disappeared, such as the case of Doda Ellahi and Ghamshad Baloch, who were later released following protests. Academics and students are frequently targeted by the blasphemy laws of Pakistan, which require a death penalty for those charged with blasphemy. On December 21st, 2019, Junaid Hafeez, an academic who had been arrested in March of 2013, was sentenced to death under the blasphemy laws. He remains incarcerated as of November, 2025. In another case, Sajid Soomro, a professor from Shah Abdul Latif University, was arrested on June 10th, 2020 for his alleged violation of the blasphemy laws. Accusations of “blasphemy” also lead to mob violence against students and academic personnel. On April 13th, 2017, a student named Mashal Khan at Abdul Wali Khan University was attacked and killed by a group of students after he was accused of “blaspheming” by another student. Violence between student groups also occurred recently, as exemplified by the violent clash of student groups in Punjab University of Lahore on September 3rd, 2022. In 2025, several Baloch students and scholars were abducted by the Pakistani security forces for activism with the Baloch Yakjehti Movement, including Mahjabeen Baloch, Muhammad Yonus Baloch, and Gohram Ishaq.

Indeed, it is not only the government or state forces that constitute a threat to academic freedom, as academics and students also face threats from paramilitary groups. The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack reports 41 separate attacks on campuses by non-state groups. Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) has been following and reporting on such events like the attack on the Balochistan Police College, which killed at least 61 people and injured at least 120, and the attack on Bacha Khan University, where an academic named Syed Hamid Hussain was among the at least 20 people that were killed. In another instance, on February 2, 2025, unidentified attackers shot Baloch intellectual Allah Dad Baloch, a prominent advocate for Baloch scholarship and national identity. While these groups and others like them engage in indiscriminate violence, they also often intentionally target girls’ schools, as part of wider campaigns aimed at restricting the access of women to education. The Pakistani government reported that in 2022, 26 million children were out of school, with the majority being young girls.

ESW calls on the Pakistani government to uphold the rights of the people in Pakistan to academic freedom, by ceasing the weaponization of laws to target academics and students, ending the crackdown on protests in universities, protecting universities against attacks by non-state armed groups, and respecting the institutional autonomy of universities.

(Last Updated: November 20, 2025)

Please send appeals to the following:

Shehbaz Sharif

Prime Minister of Pakistan

Prime Minister’s Office

Islamabad, Pakistan

info@pmo.gov.pk

Ishaq Dar

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan

Phone: 051-9210335

Fax: 051-9207600

Islamabad, Pakistan