Justice Project Pakistan

22/09/2026

For nearly two decades, Pakistan's prison population remained steady. During 2000 and 2018, growth in the overall number of prisoners fluctuated within the narrow range of 74,000-85,000 approximately. This meagre increase reflected a relatively stable prison growth.

However, the years after that have displayed a sharper and more sustained hike than anything recorded before. Pakistan's prisons have entered a period of sustained expansion, majorly driven by the accumulation of people in under-trial detention. Another significant factor for the rapid increase is the incarceration of people under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act.

Rapid growth in prison population is just one of the data points being discussed in the Annual Pakistan Prison Data Report 2026, a joint publication by Justice Project Pakistan and the National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan - NCHR, co-funded by the European Union in Pakistan. The full report is set to launch soon.

Stay tuned for more insights.

18/09/2026

Aatif was young when he was caught in the crossfire of a dispute between two villages that had bred hatred for generations. Someone from the rival village falsely accused him of murder. In response, he tried to take the right course of action by voluntarily reporting to the station, several times, with family members and elders at his side. On his final visit, they arrested Aatif anyway.

For a month, he was held with roughly fifteen other men in a cell built for just four. Every night, the officers pulled him out and tortured him until dawn. They suspended him from the ceiling by rope and hooks and struck with sticks and gun butts, while his feet were bound to a chair and beaten until they swelled beyond recognition. He could not walk. He could not stand to even relieve himself without help. When his family tried to bring him food, the prison guards kept most of it for themselves.

He was eventually charged with robbery instead of murder, which he denied as well, and was released on bail. Years later, his arm remained deformed, and his siblings stopped attending school, fearing something worse might happen to the family.

Aatif is an anonymised name used to protect the survivor's identity, but his story is real, one of 58 documented cases in the report titled, “Abuse of Juveniles by the Faisalabad Police”, jointly produced by Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School's Lowenstein Clinic.

This is the third and final story in our campaign, , where we tell the lived accounts of juveniles who were wrongfully detained and then brutally tortured at the hands of those meant to protect them.

16/09/2026

It was meant to be an ordinary evening for eighteen-year-old Faiza when a commotion outside her home turned into a night of violence for her entire family. Law enforcement officers came to look for her brother, Yasir, over a theft allegation. When Yasir locked himself in his room, officers tried to break the door down. Faiza stood in their way, refusing to let them in and they beat her with a bamboo cane for it. Their elderly father, who was also paralyzed, lay in the yard, powerless to do anything but watch.

Elsewhere in the house, other officers pinned her sister Zahra, who was pregnant at the time, and another sister to the ground, beating them with canes and rifle stocks. A shot struck Zahra's hand, nearly severing her thumb. Their father cried out in protest and was beaten into silence too. Outside, officers fired warning shots into the air to keep neighbors from approaching, and beat a woman from the street who tried to help.

Pakistan's domestic law and international law both prohibit arbitrary violence and torture against families by the law enforcement officers, while searching for one person. When the sisters tried to file a complaint against this abuse, community elders pressured them into withdrawing it. "I was pregnant, so was in no position to fight back, but still they did not spare me," Zahra recalled.

Yasir was eventually dragged out, held for five days, and tortured. Despite all that, no evidence was found against him at all. Zahra needed eighteen stitches to reattach her thumb and gave birth just fifteen days later. Months on, her hand and ribs still ached.

All names in this account are anonymised, used to protect the survivors' identities, but their story is real, making it one of the 58 documented cases in the report titled “Abuse of Juveniles by the Faisalabad Police”, a joint report produced by Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School's Lowenstein Clinic.

This is the second story in our campaign, , where we tell the lived experiences of juveniles who were wrongfully detained and brutally tortured at the hands of those meant to protect them.

14/09/2026

It was a normal day at work for the seventeen-year-old Tariq when a small argument turned into a life-changing traumatic event for the rest of his life. During that quarrel, he slightly nudged his co-worker, who felt so humiliated that he paid a law enforcement officer to convert it into a false murder charge against Tariq.

That evening, officers suddenly showed up at Tariq's house, and the ride to the station was quiet. They slapped him a few times and still, Tariq was unaware of what was about to unfold for him. Then, for a month and a half, he was tied to a bed and beaten with sticks and leather straps, every day.

One day, they asked Tariq to run once; he did not, because he knew that running would just give them a reason to shoot him and then call it self defense. During his time behind bars, he did not really sleep properly. He would pass out due to the pain instead. There was no food. They gave him just painkillers, enough to keep him quiet.

Pakistan’s domestic law and the international legal frameworks state that children in custody should be protected, not tortured into confessions. For Tariq, that protection never got implemented. When he tried to file a complaint once, he was tortured more in response. "Nothing positive happened. In fact, we were further beaten by the officers”, he recalled.

His family had to pay nearly 500,000 rupees to finally get him released, and their debt took years to pay off fully. He still cannot use his arms properly.

Tariq is an anonymised name used to protect the survivor’s identity, but his story is real, making it one of the 58 documented cases in the report titled "Abuse of Juveniles by the Faisalabad Police", jointly produced by Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School's Lowenstein Clinic.

This is the first story in our new campaign, , where we recall the lived experiences of juveniles who were wrongfully detained and then brutally tortured at the hands of those meant to protect them.

07/09/2026

The law enforcement officers knew Zahira's husband was often away, and they used that against her. They came to her home again and again. One night, a group led by an officer who appeared drunk broke into her house. They found her husband absent, and damaged her belongings before leaving.

After enduring repeated harassment, Zahira, her mother Zakia, and other women from the neighbourhood organized a protest against it. In response to that, the officers beat the women with sticks and boots. Zakia, an older woman, was kicked so hard that one of her legs broke and the other was badly bruised. Both women's clothes were torn during the assault, exposing them publicly. “This was a very humiliating and shameful day for us," Zahira said.

Rather than transporting the women in an appropriate vehicle, the officers further forced their way into the family's own car and rode with them to the station, harassing them the entire way. Once there, they were left on the floor for hours. Zahira took weeks while Zakia needed two to three months to fully recover. No formal complaint was ever filed and the village elders urged the family to forgive the officers instead.

Their story is not fictional. It is one of more than a hundred real, documented cases of women abused by those meant to serve and protect them, recorded in a joint report by Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School's Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic.

*Note: Zahira and Zakia are anonymised names for the torture survivors, meant to protect their identities.

This is the third and final story from our campaign, , where we share the lived experiences of women who were tortured at the hands of law enforcement officers in Faisalabad, documented between 2006 and 2012.

04/09/2026

04/09/2026

Abeer was six weeks pregnant when some law enforcement officers raided her home to arrest her husband, based on an accusation which was never proven. She was standing near the stairs when officers pushed past her, kicking and slapping her as they searched the house. One officer pushed her hard enough that she fell down the stairs.

Two days later, Abeer lost the baby. "I started bleeding and lost my baby. The doctors said that I would not be able to have a child again, and it took me four years before I could carry one”, she said.

The abuse also fractured her back and injured her head and shoulders. Years later, she still cannot stand for long without pain. The damage went beyond her body. Her husband's business suffered because of the incident. Their neighbors also grew distrustful of Abeer's family, and for a while, the family avoided leaving their house after dark.

Abeer was never a suspect; still, she was tortured, humiliated and severely injured. Her story is not fictional. It is one of more than a hundred real, documented cases of women abused by those meant to serve and protect them, recorded in a joint report by Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School's Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic.

*Note: Abeer is an anonymised name for the torture survivor, meant to protect her identity.

This is the second story from our campaign, , where we share the lived experiences of women who were tortured at the hands of law enforcement officers in Faisalabad, documented between 2006 and 2012.

02/09/2026

It was just past midnight when the knocking started. Malika's husband opened the door to a group of law enforcement officers in plain clothes, demanding money. When he told them he had none, they began beating him right there. Malika stepped in to protect her husband, and an officer struck her so hard that her front teeth loosened.

Seeing all the chaos their children ran to help and were beaten too. Her two-year-old son was kicked hard enough to leave a scar he still carries. Her pregnant sister-in-law, who was also her neighbour, came out to see what was happening. She was kicked, fell, and days later, she miscarried. Malika had also sustained several injuries and was admitted to the hospital. The doctors were unsure if she would even survive.

Somewhere during the incident, Malika's veil was pulled off in front of her entire neighborhood. She never covered herself in public again after that night, and said that the damage already felt done. “The entire neighborhood saw my face and hair, and there was no point of pardah (veil) thereafter”, told Malika.

She was neither a suspect, nor an accused. Her story is not fictional, but one of more than a hundred real documented cases of women abused by those meant to serve and protect them, recorded in a joint report by Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School's Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic.

*Note: Malika is an anonymised name for the torture survivor, meant to protect her identity.

This is the first story from our campaign, , where we aim to tell the real experiences of women who were tortured at the hands of law enforcement officers in Faisalabad, documented in between 2006 and 2012.

31/08/2026

Pakistan's primary drug law, the Control of Narcotic Substances Act (CNSA) 1997, was written to apply equally to everyone. In practice, it has become a tool that impacts the most vulnerable and overlooks real operators. Most women caught up under this law did not set out to be part of a drug trade. They were either in debt, forced by a family member, tried to provide for their children, or simply were unaware of what they were doing.
The CNSA mostly ignores how a woman got there. It does not care if she was carrying something to survive, or if she even understood what she was agreeing to. It just punishes first and enquires later. Hence, a woman forced into being a courier gets treated the same as the person running the drug trade.

Justice Project Pakistan’s latest policy brief titled “Women, Poverty & the Failure of the CNSA” examines the human cost of Pakistan's drug control framework for women, and makes the case for a reform that is gender-balanced, evidence-based, and rooted in dignity.

Read the full policy brief here: https://www.jpp.org.pk/report/policy-brief-women-poverty-the-failure-of-the-cnsa/

27/08/2026

Justice Project Pakistan and the PCHR Pakistan, in collaboration with Police College Sihala "Rawalpindi, Punjab", convened another training session on the international and domestic law standards for torture prevention by law enforcement.

Police officials engaged in focused discussions on Pakistan’s Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022 and relevant protections in the Constitution. They also received training on the international law standards for ethical interviewing and evidence-led investigation.

A key outcome of this training was the shift in discussion from what the law requires to how investigations can be conducted effectively without using coercion. Participants asked practical questions about lawful information-gathering to ensure that policing remains effective while respecting safeguards.

The session also highlighted that ethical interviewing was not seen as a barrier to policing, but as a professional skill that needs further development through practical training and evidence-led planning. By improving the reliability of information, strengthening trials, and reducing the risk of false confessions, it showed that effective policing and respect for human rights are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

This training was generously supported by the European Union in Pakistan, a key partner in strengthening Pakistan's justice sector and advancing the protection of human rights.