Lawyers, Activists Decry Commonwealth’s 19-Month Delay in Pakistan Election Report
A coalition of more than 130 activists, lawyers, and journalists has accused the Commonwealth Secretariat of betraying its democratic commitments by withholding its observer mission’s report on Pakistan’s 2024 general elections for 19 months, according to Dawn News.
In a letter sent Thursday to the Commonwealth Secretariat, the signatories expressed alarm over what they called an “extraordinary” delay in publishing the Commonwealth Observer Group’s (COG) final assessment. The report, finally released on September 30, 2025, flagged restrictions on political rights, interference by key institutions, and election-day communication blackouts that undermined transparency.
The letter noted that the delay was unprecedented. While Pakistan’s 2013 and 2018 election reports were published within months of polling, the 2024 document—finalized and transmitted by the 15-member observer group on November 20, 2024—was withheld for nearly a year. By contrast, reports for Sri Lanka, Ghana, and Trinidad and Tobago, whose elections took place after Pakistan’s, were released earlier.
“We are not aware that any other COG report has been published 10 months after transmittal,” the letter stated, adding that the secrecy violated the Commonwealth’s own election observation guidelines, which require reports to be issued and made public in a timely manner.
The controversy deepened after an independent outlet, Dropsite News, leaked the report on September 13. Only then did the Commonwealth release the official version, prompting accusations that the Secretariat had shared the findings with Pakistan’s government and Election Commission while withholding them from voters and civil society.
“This damning admission that the report was shared with the perpetrators of election fraud but withheld from the victims … constitutes a betrayal of the Commonwealth Charter’s commitments to democracy and human rights,” the letter declared.
The report itself documented a litany of concerns: mass arrests of opposition party members, restrictions on freedom of association, curtailed press freedoms, discrepancies in polling results, and an election-night suspension of cellular services. Perhaps most strikingly, it recorded “immense concern” over allegations of judicial interference in election-related cases.
For Pakistan’s opposition, particularly the embattled PTI of former prime minister Imran Khan, the report is validation of long-standing claims of systemic rigging and institutional bias. For the Commonwealth, however, the affair raises difficult questions about its credibility as a guardian of democratic standards.
The letter urged the Secretariat to commission an independent inquiry into the delay, adopt fixed timelines for publishing observer reports, escalate the matter to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, and issue an apology to the people of Pakistan.
“The foremost duty of the Commonwealth Secretariat in this matter is to uphold the democratic rights of the people of its member state,” the signatories wrote. “Instead, it has harmed accountability and denied millions of Pakistanis the opportunity to seek redress for violations of their democratic rights.”
