Pakistan has turned the United Kingdom into one of its primary theatres of transnational repression, with a campaign that began against Baloch activists now sweeping up Pakistani journalists, former military officers, ex-officials, and supporters of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) living abroad, according to a detailed report by Parrhesia News published on 25 July. Exiles across Britain report surveillance, intimidation, harassment, and pressure on family members still in Pakistan.

Who Is Being Targeted

The scope of the campaign has widened well beyond its original focus. Pakistani exiles in Britain describe being subjected to surveillance and harassment, while their relatives in Pakistan face visits and pressure from authorities. Several have been convicted in absentia by Pakistani courts; others face terrorism or cybercrime charges rooted in speech made on foreign soil.

Among the most prominently named targets is retired Major Adil Raja, a former Pakistan Army officer who became a vocal critic of the military establishment and its role in the removal and persecution of Imran Khan. According to the report, Raja's status as a former insider makes him a particular concern for the Pakistani state — he does not merely criticise from the outside but carries institutional knowledge.

Physical Incidents on British Soil

The pressure has reportedly moved beyond diplomatic correspondence into direct physical confrontation. According to the Parrhesia News report, on Christmas Eve 2025, men allegedly attempted to force their way into Major Raja's home in Chesham. On the same night, a separate group reportedly targeted Shahzad Akbar, a former advisor to Imran Khan, at his residence in Cambridgeshire.

British prosecutors have characterised these incidents as part of a 'coordinated and sophisticated conspiracy.' Separately, British security services have reportedly warned Pakistani dissidents that their names were circulating on alleged hit lists — warnings that gained weight after a London-based man was charged in 2021 with conspiring to murder exiled Pakistani blogger Ahmad Waqass Goraya in the Netherlands.

The Bureaucratic Architecture of Repression

The report argues that Pakistan has grown adept at what it calls the 'bureaucratic laundering of repression' — using legal instruments to achieve political ends. The pattern, as described, follows a recognisable sequence: a political opponent is labelled anti-state; anti-state activity is recast as incitement; incitement is reclassified as terrorism; terrorism produces an arrest warrant; the arrest warrant becomes an international extradition request. By the time the matter arrives before a European court, the underlying political dispute has been repackaged as routine criminal procedure.

The tools deployed reportedly include arrest warrants, in-absentia convictions, cancelled identity documents, counterterrorism cooperation channels, and consular pressure. 'The methods appear legal because they use legal instruments. Their purpose remains political,' the report stated.

A Message to the Entire Diaspora

Analysts cited in the report argue that the campaign is not limited to formally accused individuals. Its intended audience, they contend, is the entire Pakistani diaspora — designed to recreate abroad the climate of self-censorship that prevails inside Pakistan. 'The state wants to recreate abroad the atmosphere it has created at home: uncertainty over which statement may produce a case, which relative may receive a visit, which passport may be cancelled and which accusation may convert a journalist into a terrorist,' the report noted.

Several exiled journalists, scholars, and commentators have faced arrest warrants, public warnings, and cancelled travel documents. Critics argue the pattern amounts to transnational repression in its contemporary form — one that does not always require kidnapping or assassination to be effective.

What Comes Next

With British prosecutors already engaged and security services issuing active warnings, pressure is mounting on UK authorities to assess whether existing legal frameworks adequately address state-directed intimidation of diaspora communities. The cases of Major Raja and Shahzad Akbar are expected to test how European courts distinguish between legitimate criminal extradition requests and politically motivated legal instruments.