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II. Methodology

This report is based on approximately 50 interviews conducted with lawyers and judges between November 3 and December 5, 2007. The interviews were conducted in person and by telephone in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Nawabshah. The interviewees were mostly senior lawyers and judges from the major urban centers and consequently are likely to have faced considerably less police brutality than their lesser known counterparts in smaller towns. Not all interviews conducted are reproduced in this report: interviews conducted in Quetta, Peshawar, and Nowshera informed the conclusions reached, but are not included in this report. Interviews were conducted in English and Urdu. All documents cited in the report are either publicly available or are on file with Human Rights Watch.

The crackdown that began in Pakistan on November 3 had much wider geographical and social reach and impact than is documented below. In addition to the groups examined here, the country’s media, human rights defenders, students, and political activists have undergone, and are experiencing, ongoing violence and violations of their fundamental rights at the hands of the Pakistani state.