LAHORE, Pakistan — Academic Ammar Ali Jan went to a demonstration in Lahore this year against the police torture and killing of a fellow professor.
Then he was charged with treason.
The case is not unusual, say analysts, activists and some opposition lawmakers. In fact, charges of treason are increasingly used against critics of the government and the military despite promises by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who took office last year, to give Pakistan a fresh start and to limit political interference by the all-powerful military.
“Nowadays in Pakistan, dissent is increasingly being equated to treason,” said Mr. Jan, a political science professor at Forman Christian College in Lahore. “There are so many cases where people who disagree with the orientation of the country or with the vision for its future are being labeled as … agents of some foreign power.”
Academics, civil rights activists, journalists and others critical of the government and the military are being threatened physically, trolled online, arrested on charges of treason — a capital crime — and even detained or killed.
Although critics of the state have long faced harassment and violence, the situation has turned markedly worse, many say.
“Pakistan has never had space for dissent, and dissenters have been hounded, threatened, abducted and killed with impunity,” said Bushra Gohar, a former member of Parliament. “The situation has become much worse. … The political process has been manipulated, weakened and under constant attack from the powerful military.”
Pakistan’s deeply entrenched press culture is also feeling heat from the government, as are news outlets and political forums that have sprung up on social media.
Ms. Gohar said the Khan government has been silently allowing a crackdown on dissent since it took office last year after a stunning election victory that upended the political landscape of long-serving establishment parties.
“The political leadership has surrendered,” said Ms. Gohar. “Very few have raised a voice against the stifling of dissenting voices.”
The journalism activist group Reporters Without Borders ranked Pakistan 142nd out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, down three positions from 2017.
“The Pakistani media, which have a long tradition of being very lively, have become a priority target for the country’s ’deep state,’ a euphemism for the constant maneuvering by the military and military intelligence to subjugate civilians,” the group said in its latest rankings. “This military ’establishment,’ which opposes independent journalism, stepped up its harassment of the media significantly in the run-up to the July 2018 general elections” that led to Mr. Khan’s election.
Mr. Jan was arrested for protesting the killing of Arman Loni, who belonged to the Pashtun minority group. Loni had vocally protested the persecution of Pashtuns as well as the so-called enforced disappearances of its members by the military. Loni was arrested at a Pashtun protest in February.
The specific charges against Mr. Jan include chanting slogans against state institutions and intelligence agencies, charges that amount to treason, according to the complaint. He was released on bail and said what came afterward was worse than the arrest.
“The problem with being an enemy of the state, as I learned, is that not only do you not have the right to criticize but also you are made to feel that the fact that you exist is a problem,” he said. “My family and I have been harassed.”
Getting worse
Cases of persecution for criticizing the government have become especially blatant over the past year, critics say.
In April, Pakistani authorities brought charges against senior investigative journalist Shahzeb Jillani on what many say are questionable allegations of online terrorism and defaming “respected institutions” — the military — under the country’s cybercrime law.
Mr. Jillani said he believed the real reason for the charges was a story he reported about enforced disappearances for news outlet Dunya News and his March 24 tweet criticizing a decision to decorate a senior military intelligence officer who interfered in July 2018 elections, he told the journalism rights group Reporters Without Borders.
On May 18, a local court in Karachi quashed the case against Mr. Jillani, saying authorities failed to make their case.
Others caught up in the government pressure campaign haven’t been so fortunate.
Pakistani journalist Cyril Almeida was charged with treason and banned from leaving the country after publishing an interview with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In the piece, Mr. Sharif questioned the involvement of Pakistan’s military in tackling extremism in the country.
The case is pending, as are dozens of others.
Meanwhile, the government has moved to tighten control over social media platforms, long used to discuss politics in the country. In February, the government announced the creation of an enforcement body to crack down on users it believes are spreading “hate speech and violence.”
“Our problem is that the digital media is taking over [traditional] media, so it is important for us to regulate this,” then-Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said soon after the agency was created. “The informal media is a greater problem.
“We want to monitor social media, trace fake accounts, and those who break the law could be prosecuted,” Mr. Chaudhry added.
But activists and analysts say the government is using the law to monitor social media and shut down critical voices.
“Under the pretense of hate speech, the government is only trying to control dissent on social media,” said Ahmad Waqass Goraya, a human rights activist and a blogger who was arrested by security forces in 2017 for his political commentary. “It is obvious that with the formal media under their thumb, the government now wants to block any alternate views from social as well.”
Meanwhile, the armed forces and the government are giving tacit approval to cyberarmies of “patriotic Pakistanis” to take to the internet and battle those who criticize the authorities, activists and journalists say.
“Social media is being used as a tool to forward threats of violence by officials,” said Ms. Gohar. “Anyone who dares to question or demand accountability is labeled a traitor.”
Meanwhile, those critical of the government say it’s tough to stay on the right side of the law because the rules are increasingly vague and arbitrary.
“The undeclared red lines make things more complicated because there are no set lines between what’s prohibited and permitted,” said Mr. Jan. “And that gives a lot of power to the state in deciding how it chooses to use its power.”
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