Rights & Justice

A new Human Rights Commission of Pakistan policy paper finds under-trial detainees made up 73.41% of the national prison population in 2024, up from 66% in 2017, with Punjab's jails running at 190.73% of designed capacity. HRCP says building more prisons won't fix a problem rooted in bail and the courts.

BBP Justice Desk · October 9, 2026 · 4 min

The Islamabad High Court issued notices to the federal government on October 7 over a petition describing more than 50 Pakistani men who left for Europe on irregular boat routes between April 2024 and January 2025 and have not been heard from since.

BBP Rights Desk · October 9, 2026 · 4 min

An anti-terrorism court indicted human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha in a 2024 security-breach case tied to an international cricket team's visit, over defence objections that they hadn't received case documents or met their counsel — the latest case in a year-long sequence that has already included a 17-year PECA sentence and a same-day re-arrest after Supreme Court bail.

BBP Rights Desk · October 8, 2026 · 4 min

Three UN special rapporteurs told a Human Rights Council side event on October 2 that new legislation won't fix forced religious conversion and child marriage of minority girls in Pakistan without enforcement — and a follow-up piece on October 5 says Islamabad still hasn't formally responded.

BBP Rights Desk · October 7, 2026 · 4 min

The Federal Constitutional Court's September 29 ruling that undesirable conduct alone isn't sexual harassment drew sharp criticism from lawyers, and on October 4 retired Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah — who quit the Supreme Court in protest when the FCC was created — used a Dawn op-ed to tie the verdict to the court's own legitimacy.

BBP Rights Desk · October 7, 2026 · 5 min

A three-judge Supreme Court bench dismissed the Sindh government's review petition on October 7, closing off its last avenue to overturn the June acquittal of two MQM workers convicted and then cleared in the 2012 Baldia Town factory fire that killed more than 260 workers.

BBP Rights Desk · October 7, 2026 · 3 min

The Supreme Court dismissed Qaiser Ayub's appeal against his 2018 blasphemy death sentence on October 7 while acquitting his brother and co-accused Amoon Ayub for lack of evidence — a split outcome built on the same underlying case that has drawn criticism from rights groups.

BBP Rights Desk · October 7, 2026 · 4 min

Pakistan closed 59.5% of its gender gap in the World Economic Forum's 2026 Global Gender Gap Report, up from 56.7% a year earlier, but still ranks 143rd of 145 countries — ahead of only Algeria, the DRC, Iran and Chad.

BBP Rights Desk · October 2, 2026 · 3 min

A Punjab Assembly standing committee has unanimously approved the Christian Marriage Act Bill 2026, replacing a colonial-era law that allowed marriage at 16 for boys and 13 for girls — but church leaders say raising the age alone doesn't fix a law that still needs reform on divorce, custody and inheritance.

BBP Rights Desk · October 1, 2026 · 4 min