LONDON: PTI leader Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a former aide to ex-premier Imran Khan, is set to offer testimony on “political repression” in Pakistan before the United States Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, it emerged on Monday.
According to its website, the bipartisan commission was established in 2008 and is charged with promoting, defending and advocating for international human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights instruments.
The commission’s hearing notice states that the session will take place on Tuesday (tomorrow) at 3:30pm (12:30am PKT on Wednesday) and will “examine the government of Pakistan’s persecution of opposition political figures and journalists, and its actions to control media communications and prevent free and fair elections in Pakistan”. The session is open to the public and the media.
“Many date the current phase of repression in Pakistan to 2022, when, with the involvement of the Pakistan military, popular Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted, and soon after, arrested, convicted of corruption and imprisoned,” the notice read.
“Parliamentary elections in February 2024 were, according to the US State Department, marked by ‘undue restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly’, as well as ‘electoral violence, and restrictions on the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms’,” it added.
The commission provided a list of witnesses who would provide testimony during Tuesday’s hearing. Besides Bukhari, the list includes Amnesty International’s Advocacy Director for Europe and Central Asia, Ben Linden; Perseus Strategies Managing Director Jared Genser; and Afghanistan Impact Network founder Sadiq Amini.
A press release from the commission’s co-chairman, Republican Congressman Christopher Smith, who will chair the session, said the meeting would “discuss the government of Pakistan’s ongoing political repression, the US response, and offer recommendations for Congress”.
Bukhari announced that he would be testifying before the commission in a post on X dated July 9, expressing gratitude to the commission’s co-chairs, Democratic Congressman James McGovern and Smith, for the opportunity to testify.
“I will be highlighting the arbitrary detention of Imran Khan, his wife, and other political prisoners, as well as the erosion of democracy, the undermining of the rule of law, and escalating crackdowns on freedom of expression in Pakistan,” he wrote.
Genser replied to Bukhari’s post, writing, “I am honoured and grateful to be able to testify alongside you before the [Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission] on Pakistan, human rights and the situation of Imran Khan and all political prisoners being held by the current regime.”
Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in the £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the May 9, 2023, protests.
In May, Freedom Network’s annual Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom Report for 2025 said Pakistan’s media is standing at a crossroads amid an existential threat and increased restrictive environment, deteriorating safety and job security, significant challenges to professional integrity of media and its practitioners.
Titled ‘Free speech and public interest journalism under siege’, the report finds that the existential crisis was triggered by amendments to Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) in January 2025 that now “makes it easier” for authorities to arrest, fine and imprison journalists and dissidents — both offline and online — besides other challenges.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the country’s leading human rights watchdog, has also expressed deep concern over the steadily shrinking space for human rights advocacy in the country.
In a statement issued earlier this month, the HRCP said it had faced a series of arbitrary, illegal, and unjustified actions over the past few months, which have impeded the organisation’s ability to carry out its mandate.
