Pakistan’s surveillance system has transformed over the past two decades, moving from scattered partnerships to a unified, state-controlled censorship and monitoring setup. This system includes practices like metadata harvesting, device intrusion, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) filtering, and national-level internet control. Significant infrastructural, legal, and policy changes since 2024 have fundamentally reshaped the internet landscape in Pakistan.
The surveillance trajectory in Pakistan has seen a gradual rise from early mass-monitoring to a complex, multi-layered digital control regime. A report from the European Times highlighted a 2013 Citizen Lab report that uncovered the presence of command-and-control servers for FinFisher, a commercial network intrusion malware. This malware was capable of intercepting communications, accessing private data, and recording audio and video from computers or mobile devices in Pakistan.
In 2024, Pakistan experimented with a national internet ‘firewall’ utilizing Chinese technology to enhance government web monitoring capabilities and control over popular platforms. This system allowed selective blocking of features on apps or websites and was implemented at crucial internet gateways, mobile operators’ data centers, and major internet service providers. However, this move led to complaints about poor internet connectivity.
Following the controversial February 2024 general election, telecom operators in Pakistan were directed by the regulator to install the Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS). This system granted intelligence agencies immediate access to citizens’ call logs, private messages, browsing history, and more. The LIMS serves as another surveillance tool for the Pakistani state, enabling the retrieval of unencrypted data, call eavesdropping, and message reading.
The Audio Leaks Case brought before the Islamabad High Court exposed the state’s warrantless surveillance practices through LIMS. Testimonies revealed that agencies could access telecom networks with a single click, using SIM, IMEI, or phone numbers to automatically retrieve SMS records, call data, metadata, and even full content streams like audio, video, and search histories. Pakistan’s internet freedom status was recently ranked 27th out of 100 by global democracy watchdog Freedom House, categorizing it as ‘Not Free’ due to government actions expanding censorship practices.
