Boriwal Kakar is a journalist for RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal in Prague.
Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis and Afghans are among millions of foreign workers likely to benefit from the easing of restrictions in Saudi Arabia's "kafala" visa sponsorship system. But 3.7 million domestic workers will be left in what critics have compared to a modern form of slavery.
The Pakistani government views its large paramilitary force as the first line of defense against insurgents and criminals in the vast southwestern province of Balochistan, which reels from violence and crime that officials often link to neighboring Afghanistan and Iran.
In the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, activists and relatives of victims of forced disappearances are participating in a nearly two-week sit-in protest to demand that authorities release or find scores of missing Shi’a.
Pakistan has always pushed back against accusations that it orchestrates the Taliban’s violent campaign in Afghanistan, instead saying stability in the neighboring country serves its interests.
Politicians, lawyers, and human rights campaigners are opposing a new Pakistani counterterrorism law, arguing that it threatens human rights by granting sweeping powers to security forces.
