The EU must not renew Pakistan’s GSP+ status: Europe cannot keep underwriting a rogue state

Rishi Suri
2 minutes ago
4 min read

As Brussels reviews Pakistan’s GSP+ trade privileges, the question before the European Union is not technical, economic, or procedural, it is profoundly moral. Renewing GSP+ for Pakistan would not uplift human rights, encourage democratic reform, or strengthen civil society. Instead, it would reward a collapsing state apparatus that systematically violates the very 27 UN conventions that GSP+ is designed to enforce.

For a decade, Europe has granted Pakistan tariff-free access to its markets, hoping economic incentives would moderate extremism and force the state to improve governance. The results are now undeniable: Pakistan has become more authoritarian, more militarised, more violent, and more reckless, both internally and in its neighbourhood.

GSP+ has failed to soften Pakistan. Renewing it now would only strengthen a rogue deep state whose agenda is fundamentally incompatible with European values.

1. A Human Rights Catastrophe That GSP+ Failed to Prevent

Pakistan today is one of the world’s worst human rights offenders and getting worse.

Balochistan: Europe Cannot Ignore a Slow-Motion Genocide

More than 5,000 Baloch men, women, and children have gone missing since 2001, according to human rights groups.
Every month brings reports of “kill-and-dump” operations, mutilated bodies found in ravines, and students abducted from hostels.
Groups such as Paank and BHRO documented 30+ enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings per month in 2024–25.
Women protestors, mothers of the disappeared, are baton-charged, arrested, and humiliated.

These crimes are not isolated excesses. They constitute a systematic counter-insurgency through terror, run by the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps, and ISI.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Drone Warfare Against Its Own Citizens

While Islamabad condemns US drone strikes from the past, the Pakistani military has now begun conducting similar strikes on its own population:

In 2024–25, drone attacks in Mardan, North Waziristan, and South Waziristan killed dozens of civilians, including children.
Families received no compensation, no inquiry, no accountability.
The state does not even acknowledge the existence of its drone programme.

A state that bombs its own population cannot receive preferential trade access from the EU.

2. Pakistan as a State Sponsor of Terrorism

It is no longer controversial to state that Pakistan’s deep state uses terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy. European policymakers know this well.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and their Fronts Operate with Impunity

UN-designated terrorists roam freely in Pakistan.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has rebranded through fronts like The Resistance Front, responsible for major attacks including the Pahalgam massacre of 2025.
Jaish-e-Mohammed continues training and ideological operations from Balakot, Bahawalpur, and elsewhere.

The ISI’s Cross-Border Networks are Expanding

From narcotics in Balochistan to hybrid warfare in Bangladesh and Nepal, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have deepened destabilization activities across South Asia.

The EU cannot claim commitment to global counter-terrorism while rewarding the world’s most prolific state sponsor of Islamist militancy after Iran.

3. Pakistan is Now a Military Dictatorship in Everything but Name

The removal of civilian control in Pakistan is now complete.

Imran Khan’s Arrest and the Brutal Political Crackdown

Imran Khan, arguably the country’s most popular civilian leader, has been held in solitary confinement through hundreds of fabricated cases.
His sister, Aleema Khan, has been harassed and detained.
Hundreds of PTI women supporters have been arrested, including mothers with infants.
Senior PTI leaders face mass trials under anti-terror laws, some sentenced to 10+ years simply for protesting.

The 27th Constitutional Amendment: Democracy is Dead

Pakistan’s 27th Constitutional Amendment, pushed quietly by the military establishment is the final nail in the coffin:

It centralises power formally in the Army.
Weakens civilian courts.
Authorises military tribunals for civilians.
Strips Parliament of oversight functions.
Effectively legalises military intervention in governance.

This is Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law with constitutional makeup.

Renewing GSP+ would mean the EU recognises Pakistan’s military dictatorship as a legitimate democratic state.

4. General Asim Munir: The Most Authoritarian Army Chief in Pakistan’s History

General Asim Munir is not merely a military leader; he acts as the supreme ruler of Pakistan.

His tenure is marked by:

Violent suppression of dissent.
The largest political arrests since 1977.
Media censorship worse than the Musharraf era.
Military control of the judiciary.
Forced disappearances of journalists.
The weaponisation of blasphemy laws against critics.
Intervention in every civilian ministry, including finance.

Pakistan under Munir resembles a modern digital-surveillance dictatorship.

Rewarding such a system with GSP+ makes a mockery of European human rights commitments.

5. Pakistan Has Become a Failed State - Economically, Politically, Institutionally

GSP+ was meant to help stabilise Pakistan. Instead, Pakistan’s collapse has accelerated:

Economic implosion

Inflation has regularly crossed 30–40%.
The currency has lost over 60% of its value since 2021.
Debt has crossed 90% of GDP.
Pakistan survives only through IMF bailouts, Chinese loans, and Gulf deposits.

Institutional collapse

Civilian ministries answer to military officers.
Parliament has become irrelevant.
The judiciary has surrendered.
Provincial governments operate as fiefdoms of Corps Commanders.

A demographic time bomb

25 million children are out of school.
Youth unemployment exceeds 25%.
Extremist recruitment is rising.

Europe cannot stabilise a failing nuclear state by subsidising the very structures causing the collapse.

6. Why the EU MUST End GSP+ Now

GSP+ has failed to produce reform

Over 10 years of engagement have yielded:

More disappearances
More censorship
More terrorism sponsorship
More authoritarianism

Ending GSP+ sends the clearest possible message

It tells Islamabad:

The world sees your human rights abuses.
Europe will not subsidise your generals.
Democracy is not negotiable.
Terrorism will not be rewarded.
Economic access requires moral responsibility.

Ordinary Pakistanis are NOT helped by GSP+

Because:

Textile exporters are dominated by military-linked conglomerates.
Import duty savings benefit elites, not workers.
Labour standards in Pakistan are among the worst in Asia.
Child labour in Pakistan’s supply chain is rampant.

Ending GSP+ would force the Pakistani state to confront the economic consequences of its oppression.

Europe Must Not Finance the Deep State’s Crimes

There comes a moment when moral clarity must override geopolitical caution. The European Union cannot claim to champion human rights, democracy, and rule of law while providing preferential trade access to a regime that: