TWO recent news reports have highlighted foreign concerns about the state of human and labour rights in the country. The United States Trade Representative recently deemed that Pakistan has not enforced prohibitions against forced labour ‘effectively’. Separately, the European Union has pushed Islamabad to show ‘measurable progress’ on human and labour rights, as well as governance reforms. Pakistan trades extensively with both the US and the EU and is therefore exposed to the terms of engagement they have set for countries wishing to access their markets. Those terms include ensuring higher standards of rights and governance than what are generally seen in developing nations, even though the same markets also trade comfortably with other partners whose records are no better. In other words, the standards function as moral commitments and as instruments of leverage at the same time. Yet, even if such standards are sometimes applied selectively, that does not invalidate the underlying concerns. For Pakistan, this has inadvertently internationalised what would otherwise have remained a domestic governance issue.

The provision of human and labour rights is, fundamentally, a domestic matter, dependent on the social contract between a state and its people. For that reason, discussions around the state of these rights should not be viewed with suspicion or hostility, but as part of the process of nation-building and social evolution. Even so, sections of the state apparatus and its supporters routinely read any discussion of human and labour rights as an effort to undermine Pakistan’s standing in the comity of nations. This is a deeply misinformed view, and it must be corrected. Pakistanis are entitled to expect dignity, protection and fair treatment from their own state before anyone else demands it abroad. The preservation and guarantee of their human and labour rights must, therefore, be seen as a matter of national pride — as evidence of how much the state values them as individuals. If Islamabad can point to ratified conventions, functioning labour inspectorates, and a credible justice system for citizens, it does not need to plead its case in trade talks. It can negotiate from a position of demonstrated compliance rather than just promises. Identifying shortcomings in the provision of human and labour rights is thus a national service, owed first to the citizens whose rights may be at stake.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026