Colombo, May 14 (AHN) Pakistani military regime under Asim Munir has been facing key challenges over the past three years in consolidating control at home, driven by a "hard state” approach rooted in an uncompromising, militarised framework for internal security and political management. The approach depends on “political repression and constitutional redesign” to centralise the regime’s command structure and restrict the space for political dissent and mobilisation.

As part of this 'hard state' approach, the regime’s list of political prisoners has grown significantly in recent years, according to a report in Sri Lankan media outlet 'News Wire'. It added that former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife have been imprisoned for nearly three years, while members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have been subjected to both legal and extra-legal repression.

“Public gatherings and assemblies are increasingly criminalised, especially in the capital, Islamabad. The government’s strategy to quell street mobilisation and blunt the PTI’s political momentum has proved largely successful, as the appetite for confrontational politics in the central province of Punjab has significantly dissipated since 2023. But Khan retains his widespread popularity, even behind bars,” the report mentioned.

It noted that despite the use of internet firewalls to curb unwanted internet traffic and the enforcement of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) to criminalise online criticism of government and army officials, critical voices and dissent have continued in the digital sphere.

“In a widely publicised case, the courts used PECA to sentence human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chatha to 17 years in prison for social media posts condemning the state’s reliance on enforced disappearances in Balochistan. In another high-profile case, a Canadian doctoral student visiting Pakistan for academic research was charged under PECA for social media posts in a cybercrime case after being reported ‘missing’ for at least three days," it detailed.

Beyond the country's political centres, the report said that the regime seeks to contain oppositional forces through measures that disregard human rights or constitutional limits. Authorities have suppressed popular social movement organisations calling for redressal of the grievances of ethnic minorities in Pakistan’s peripheral regions.

“Leaders including Ali Wazir of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, a rights-based movement advocating accountability for security operations in Pakistan’s northwest — and Mahrang Baloch, along with other Baloch activists affiliated with the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which campaigns against enforced disappearances and for the protection of Baloch rights, have been imprisoned, punished, and silenced,” it mentioned.

The report cited the intensification of mass deportations of Afghan refugees by Pakistani authorities, with US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) reporting that over 146,000 Afghans have been forcibly returned this year alone.

It noted that these deportations coincided with the US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad, where marginalised communities were also forcibly evicted in major anti-encroachment operations targetting long-established informal settlements.

Highlighting persistent repression and abuses by the Pakistani military, the report said, “Amid a broader global shift toward autocracy, the Munir regime is unlikely to face sustained external scrutiny over democratic and legal backsliding. Instead, it appears intent on leveraging an enhanced international profile to consolidate authority and bolster domestic legitimacy.”