Pakistan as a ‘Hard State’

Over the past few months, Pakistan has witnessed an alarming surge in terror incidents across the country.

The state’s response to this wave of terrorism has been nothing but absurd. Instead of acknowledging its failures, learning from past mistakes, and course-correcting, the Pakistani state has clung to a hollow narrative of being a “hard state.”

It is difficult to define what it truly means for a country to be a “hard state,” but the state’s immediate actions offer a grim preview of what those who coined this term actually had in mind.

Here are some of the events that have unfolded in Pakistan’s so-called “hard state.”

10 March 2025: A citizen, Asim, lost his life due to alleged torture by Multan police. He was caught by the security personnel & moved to, where he reportedly died from police brutality

11 March 2025: The Jaffar Express, carrying nearly 400 passengers, including hundreds of military personnel, was hijacked. Reports suggest that the military personnel were killed

11 March 2025: While the intelligence agencies utterly failed and allowed a train hijacking, the house of PTI MNA from Quetta, Adil Bazai, was raided

16 March 2025: PTI activist Haider Saeed was abducted during a violent pre-dawn raid by intelligence agency personnel at the time of Suhoor

16 March 2025: PTI activist Qadeer Amjad was forcibly disappeared

18 March 2025: PTI volunteer Abdul Hannan was abducted

19 March 2025: Two brothers of journalist Ahmad Noorani, who had exposed corruption and the misuse of power by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), were forcibly disappeared

21 March 2025: Raftar founder and prominent journalist Farhan Mallick was detained by Pakistani authorities. FIA officials raided Raftar’s office, seizing his work computer and USB drives. His bail petitions have been rejected, and he’ll be spending his Eid in prison

21 March 2025: The father and brother of overseas social media activist Umair Raj were taken away by Punjab Police

21 March 2025: DIG Liaquat Ali Malik: “DIG Liaquat Ali Malik stated, “If 160 million people are cured by killing more than 1,000 people, it is not a big cost.”

21 March 2025: A peaceful protest by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) in Quetta, demanding an end to enforced disappearances, was met with brutal repression by security forces

22 March 2025: Live firing and violence were used against BYC protesters in Quetta. Security forces seized bodies of the deceased, while women and children were attacked in a pre-dawn crackdown. Dr Mahrang Baloch and several Baloch leaders were arrested following the crackdown

24 March 2025: Sammi Deen Baloch and Lala Wahab Baloch were abducted in public during a protest in Karachi demanding the release of BYC leaders. They were taken away in a police vehicle

24 March 2025: 2 young men killed (both under 18) in cold blood in Bannu by security forces over ‘suspicion’

25 March 2025: Sammi Deen Baloch of BYC has been confined in Central Jail under the colonial-era Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) issued by PPP-led Sindh Govt.

26 March 2025: Journalist Waheed Murad was forcibly disappeared from his home at 2 AM in the early hours of the day. His mother-in-law was beaten

26 March 2025: Illegally imposed defence minister, Khawaja Asif, justifies the abduction of journalists

27 March 2025: The mothers of Ahmad Noorani and Waheed Murad were reduced to tears in the court, demanding that their forcible disappeared sons be brought back

28 March 2025: Salar Kakar, PTI leader from Balochsitan who received the most votes in the province, presented like a hardened criminal when being presented in Court for a bogus case

28 March 2025: Qadeer’s mother was reduced to tears when appearing in Lahore High Court, imploring the judiciary to intervene and retrieve his forcibly disappeared son

29 March 2025: A drone strike by Pakistan’s security forces in Babuzai, Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, resulted in the death of 9 individuals, including two women and seven men. No terrorist was killed in this ‘operation’, but women and children died

30 March 2025: BYC leader Shah Sebghat Ullah was abducted from his home, Satellite Town Quetta

These are just a few examples of the blatant disregard for fundamental human rights under the so-called “hard state.”

If anything, Pakistan has functioned as a hard state throughout its existence—it has systematically oppressed marginalized groups, forcibly disappeared dissenting voices, clamped down on civil rights, curbed freedom of speech, and trampled fundamental rights time and again.

Instead of resorting to meaningless rhetoric and propagating hollow narratives, the Pakistani state must prioritize protecting its citizens’ rights, upholding their dignity, and sincerely addressing their grievances.