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Witnesses tell Congress Pakistan’s 2024 election was “neither free nor fair,” describe judicial capture and military trials of civilians
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Summary
Witnesses at a congressional hearing said Pakistan’s February 8, 2024, elections were rigged, described changes to judicial appointment rules they said subordinated the courts to the executive and alleged mass use of military courts and secret trials that produced mass convictions of political opponents.
Sadiq Amini, a witness testifying before the commission, told members, “Pakistan’s 2024 elections were neither free nor fair.” He described months-long manipulation of the vote, including restrictions on party symbols, rejected nomination papers, and candidates forced to run as independents.
Amini and other witnesses told the commission why U.S. policymakers should care: they said the alleged electoral manipulation was followed by changes to judicial appointments and the use of special military tribunals that they described as tools to silence dissent and criminalize opponents.
Amini said the manipulation included “votes results were all changed” in the hours after polls closed, and he described ballot tallies that exceeded the number of registered voters in some constituencies. He told the commission the 2024 vote-counting process produced results that could not be reconciled with constituency populations.
Witnesses described a constitutional change they referred to repeatedly as the “20 sixth constitutional amendment” that, in their testimony, restructured judicial appointments and weakened judicial independence. Amini said previously judicial selections “were driven largely by senior judges themselves,” and that the amendment “subordinates the independence of judiciary to political interest.” He cited specific constitutional guarantees, referencing “article 175” and “article 10” as protections the witnesses said were at risk.
Panelists also detailed the use of military trials for civilians since May 2023. Amini told the commission that after May 9, 2023, military courts convicted “104 civilians, mostly PTI supporters, voters, or activists,” and said those trials had a “100% conviction rate.” He said family members and lawyers were barred from proceedings, that judgments and charge sheets had not been published, and that appeals were routed to military authorities rather than ordinary civilian appellate courts. “These trials were held in secret in dark rooms where family and public were barred from attending,” Amini said.
Witnesses connected the legal changes and prosecutions to the detention and treatment of high-profile politicians. Amini described solitary confinement and reported conditions in custody for former prime minister Imran Khan and others, saying they were held “in solitary confinement for over 23 hours a day” and alleging degrading conditions and intimidation in custody.
The hearing record also includes references to international standards. Witnesses invoked article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and statements from the U.N. working group on arbitrary detention and the International Commission of Jurists when describing risks to fair trial guarantees.
The commission’s co-chairs closed the panel by saying they would press the administration and pursue congressional options. The hearing produced no formal vote; co-chairs said staff would draft a letter to Pakistani leaders and discuss sanctions and other policy steps with colleagues.
Background and context: witnesses framed the events as part of broader political repression that followed the 2024 ballot, placing the election, judicial changes, and prosecutions in a single sequence of developments that they say curtailed plural politics and the independence of institutions.
The commission’s next steps, as stated in the hearing, include follow-up correspondence to Pakistani officials and additional oversight work in Congress.
