Amnesty calls out Pakistan for 'mass telecom surveillance'

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

In a report released on Tuesday, the rights watchdog noted that the authorities can monitor more than 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.

It added that the two monitoring systems function in tandem: one lets authorities tap calls and texts while the other slows or blocks websites and social media across the country.

Amnesty technologist Jurre van Berge told Reuters that the number of phones under surveillance may be higher, as all four major mobile operators have been ordered to connect to LIMS.

"Mass surveillance creates a chilling effect in society, whereby people are deterred from exercising their rights, both online and offline," the report said.

Amnesty said its findings draw on a 2024 Islamabad High Court case filed by Bushra Bibi, the wife of former premier Khan, after her private calls were leaked online.

Pakistan's technology, interior, and information ministries, as well as the telecom regulator, did not respond to questions from Reuters about the Amnesty report.

Foreign suppliers

Pakistan is currently blocking about 650,000 web links and restricting platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and X, Amnesty said.

Ben Wagner, Professor of Human Rights and Technology at Austrian university IT:U has said that mobile call monitoring centers are common globally, but internet filtering for the public is rare.

He adds that having both in Pakistan "constitutes a troubling development from a human rights perspective" and "suggests greater restrictions on freedom of expression and privacy will become more common as such tools become easier to implement."

Amnesty said the firewall uses equipment from US-based Niagara Networks, software from Thales DIS, a unit of France's Thales (TCFP.PA), and servers. An earlier version relied on Canada's Sandvine.

Niagara told Reuters it follows US export rules, does not know end users or how its products are used, and only sells tapping and aggregation gear.

Amnesty said that Germany's Utimaco made the phone tapping system and deployed it through monitoring centres run by Datafusion.

Datafusion told Amnesty that its centres are only sold to law enforcement and that it does not make LIMS, while AppLogic Networks, the successor to Sandvine, said it has grievance mechanisms to prevent misuse.