The U.S. helped set Pakistan’s crisis in motion, but it appears to be doing little to help dual citizens caught up in the military’s dragnet.
The political crisis sparked by former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s removal from power in 2022 has since given way to a major crackdown on what remains of his political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The campaign by the military has included a wave of killings and detentions targeting Khan’s supporters, including journalists believed to be aligned with his movement.
The impact has not been limited to those with ties to only Pakistan itself. Some of those caught up in the dragnet are American and British citizens and residents, detained in Pakistan after repression escalated in response to a series of demonstrations against the military this past May.
Pakistan is widely seen to be devolving into a police state, with thousands arrested on politicized charges over the past few months. Exact numbers of foreign nationals detained in this sweep are unclear, but at least one dual citizen, a Pakistani American named Khadijah Shah, is known to be in custody of the military.
This June, in response to questions about her case, the U.S. government announced that it had requested consular access to Shah from the Pakistani government. Shah is a high-profile Pakistani American fashion designer, and her case has received an exceptional amount of media coverage. The U.S. government has said little about her fate. As for other U.S. citizens in Pakistan, the U.S. hasn’t spoken of any attempts to determine whether other Americans may be detained there. (A State Department spokesperson said, “Consular officers have visited Ms. Shaw three times since her arrest. The last visit was on July 27, 2023. We continue to monitor Ms. Shah’s case closely.”)
Some Pakistanis with ties to the West say there are likely many other Pakistanis with foreign citizenship and residency in custody. Shahzad Akbar, formerly a legal activist in Pakistan and later an anti-corruption minister in Khan’s government, fled the crackdown to the United Kingdom, where he lives as a resident. Akbar said that many more American and British Pakistanis are likely in prison in Pakistan over the crackdown, with their families fearful of coming forward due to possible repercussions toward their loved ones.
“The line that we have heard from foreign governments is that what is happening is Pakistan’s internal matter, even though many of those detained have been foreign nationals of Pakistani descent,” Akbar said. “But when you know what is happening is political repression of dissidents, your own intelligence confirms this, and your citizens are impacted, you cannot merely dismiss it as an internal matter.”
A State Department spokesperson said, “We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. We are in close contact with Pakistani authorities on this issue and expect them to afford all detainees fair and transparent treatment in accordance with Pakistan’s laws and international obligations.”
Akbar’s own family has been impacted by the crackdown. This May, his brother in Pakistan was arrested by security forces to pressure him to return to the country from the United Kingdom. “My brother was detained in the middle of the night on May 28,” said Akbar. “Dozens of armed paramilitaries and counterterrorism police surrounded his house, broke down the door, and took him into custody.”
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Murtaza Hussain is a reporter at The Intercept who focuses on national security and foreign policy. He has appeared on CNN, BBC, MSNBC, and other news outlets.
