Amnesty says Pakistan spying on millions through phone-tapping, firewall

Pakistan is spying on millions of its citizens using a phone-tapping system and a Chinese-built internet firewall that censors social media, in one of the most comprehensive examples of state surveillance outside China, Amnesty International said.

The rights watchdog said in a report released on Tuesday that Pakistan's growing monitoring network was built using both Chinese and Western technology and powered a sweeping crackdown on dissent and free speech.

Already restricted political and media freedoms in Pakistan have tightened in recent years, particularly after the military broke with then-Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2022, who was later jailed and thousands of his party activists were detained.

Pakistan's spy agencies can monitor at least 4 million mobile phones at a time through its Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS), while a firewall known as WMS 2.0 that inspects internet traffic can block 2 million active sessions at a time, Amnesty said.

The two monitoring systems function in tandem: one lets intelligence agencies tap calls and texts while the other slows or blocks websites and social media across the country, it said.