Over 40 US lawmakers have written to secretary of state Marco Rubio expressing concern of the “transnational repression and worsening human rights disaster in Pakistan beneath the military-backed authorities of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Military Workers Asim Munir.“In a letter dated December 3, the lawmakers voiced considerations over “threats, intimidation, and harassment” of even US residents and their households in Pakistan who spoke towards the regime.
“We write to precise pressing concern over the escalating marketing campaign of transnational repression and worsening human rights disaster in Pakistan beneath the military-backed authorities of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Military Workers Asim Munir,” the letter stated.“In recent times, US residents and residents who’ve spoken out towards authoritarian abuses in Pakistan have confronted threats, intimidation, and harassment—usually extending to their households in Pakistan.1 These ways embody arbitrary detentions, coercion, and retaliatory violence, focusing on diaspora people and their relations,” it additional stated.The assertion cited Article 19 of the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and stated that Pakistan’s actions infringed upon the “proper to freedom of expression” assured beneath the identical.
‘Overseas interference on US soil’
The lawmakers additionally apprehended “international interference on US soil” and sought “focused measures, together with visa bans and asset freezes, towards officers accountable for transnational repression, widespread human rights violations, and systematic repression in Pakistan.”It additionally demanded a probe into the 2024 Pakistan elections questioning the integrity of the electoral course of.“Pakistan is going through an escalating disaster of authoritarianism, the place democratic establishments and basic freedoms are being systematically dismantled. The 2024 elections—extensively condemned for irregularities and documented within the Pattan Report, an impartial Pakistani civil society examine monitoring election irregularities—put in a pliant civilian façade.10 The U.S. State Division echoed these considerations, publicly expressing alarm over reported irregularities and referred to as for a full investigation into the electoral course of,” the letter stated.
