Home Country Guidance: Pakistan 4. Refugee status 4.1. Persons (perceived to be) opposing the Government Table of contents Table of Contents Typographical notes List of abbreviations and glossary Introduction Guidance note Common analysis 1. General situation in Pakistan 2. Regional context 3. Actors of persecution or serious harm 3.1. Areas of control and influence 3.2. State actors 3.2.1. The Pakistan armed forces 3.2.2. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) 3.2.3. Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) 3.2.4. Paramilitary groups and pro-government militias 3.2.5. The Pakistani police 3.3. Non-state actors 3.3.1. Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and affiliated groups 3.3.2. Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and Pakistan Province (ISPP) 3.3.3. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) 3.3.4. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) 3.3.5. Balochistan nationalist groups 3.3.6. Other armed groups 3.3.7. Other non-state actors 4. Refugee status 4.1. Persons (perceived to be) opposing the Government 4.1.1. PTI and MQM-L members and supporters 4.1.2. Protesters 4.1.3. Human rights defenders and activists 4.2. Journalists and other media workers 4.3. Education personnel 4.4. Individuals involved in polio vaccination campaigns 4.5. Ethnic minorities 4.6. Religious minorities 4.7. Individuals (perceived as) transgressing Islamic norms 4.8. Women and girls 4.9. Children 4.10. Persons with diverse SOGIESC 5. Subsidiary protection 5.1. Article 15(a) QR: death penalty or execution 5.2. Article 15(b) QR: torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 5.3. Article 15(c) QR: indiscriminate violence in situations of armed conflict 5.3.1. Armed conflict (international or internal) 5.3.2. Qualification of a person as a ‘civilian’ 5.3.3. Indiscriminate violence (a) Security situation in Pakistan: recent events (b) Assessment of indiscriminate violence per province 5.3.4. Serious and individual threat 5.3.5. Qualification of the harm as a ‘threat to (a civilian’s) life or person’ 5.3.6. Nexus/‘by reason of’ 6. Actors of protection 7. Internal protection alternative 7.1. Part of the country 7.2. Safety 7.3. Travel and admittance 7.4. Reasonableness to settle 7.5. General conclusion on the applicability of IPA 8. Exclusion 8.1. Exclusion based on the commission of international crimes 8.2. Exclusion based on the commission of a serious (non-political) crime 8.3. Exclusion based on acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations 8.4. Exclusion based on constituting a danger to the community or to national security Annex: Country of origin information references Citation Please cite as: EUAA, '4.1. Persons (perceived to be) opposing the Government' in Country Guidance: Pakistan, October 2026. Copy Print The contents of this section include: 4.1.1. PTI and MQM-L members and supporters 4.1.2. Protesters 4.1.3. Human rights defenders and activists Book traversal links for Country Guidance: Pakistan Previous Parent Next