&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "EU concerned over disappearances in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; special trade benefits for Pakistan at risk")
Pakistan risks its valuable EU trade preferences unless it reverses a slide in human rights, a new European Commission report has warned. With textiles making up the vast majority of its EU exports, any suspension of preferences would hit Pakistan’s fragile economy hard.
The country remains the largest beneficiary of the EU’s GSP+ scheme, which grants duty-free access to its exports in return for ratifying and implementing 27 international conventions on human rights, labour standards and environmental protection. In 2024 alone, Pakistan exported €7.5 billion worth of goods, mainly textiles and clothing, under the scheme, saving an estimated €732 million in tariffs.
The Joint Staff Working Document, covering 2023-2025, paints a picture of limited progress overshadowed by serious setbacks. While welcoming new laws , including the creation of a National Commission for Minorities, a Domestic Violence Bill in Islamabad, and the first-ever conviction for marital rape, the EU highlights that “most progress is of a legislative and administrative nature and needs to be translated into real improvements on the ground.”
Positive steps also include reducing the scope of the death penalty, maintaining a de facto moratorium on executions, ratifying an ILO protocol on forced labour, and launching provincial action plans against child labour.
However, the report expresses grave concern over a deterioration in several areas. Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings have increased, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with almost no accountability. Freedom of expression has worsened due to amendments to cybercrime, anti-terrorism and blasphemy laws, which authorities have used against journalists, dissidents and minorities.
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The document notes growing military influence, complaints about the 2024 election process, and constitutional changes criticised for undermining judicial independence. Blasphemy laws continue to be misused, with over 300 people still imprisoned following a major scam. Child labour rates are declining only slowly, and forced labour, especially debt bondage in brick kilns and agriculture, remains widespread, affecting an estimated three million people.
Civil society space is shrinking, with restrictive rules on NGOs and foreign funding, while violence against women and girls, and obstacles to fair trials, persist. The EU stresses that Pakistan must deliver concrete results to maintain GSP+ eligibility under revised rules coming into force in 2027. Key priorities include tackling impunity, reforming blasphemy and cyber laws, strengthening labour inspections, and ensuring genuine protection for minorities and journalists.
“Ensuring accountability for human rights violations” is described as essential to counter the prevailing sense of impunity. The report urges Pakistan to turn its new National Action Plan for Human Rights (2026-2029) into tangible change.
