Overview

• Amnesty says Pakistan’s Lawful Intercept Management System can monitor at least four million mobile phones at a time, intercepting calls, texts and location data once a number is targeted.
• WMS 2.0, described as a commercialized version of China’s Great Firewall, can block two million active internet sessions and restrict platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and X.
• The firewall’s core comes from China’s Geedge Networks with components from US-based Niagara Networks and France’s Thales, replacing an earlier system built around Canada’s Sandvine.
• Trade records, leaked technical files and a 2024 Islamabad High Court case involving leaked calls underpin the findings, which also highlight denials by defence and intelligence bodies contrasted with the telecom regulator’s admission that operators were ordered to install LIMS.
• Only a handful of companies provided limited responses and Pakistan did not reply to Amnesty’s letters, as rights groups point to widespread link blocking—around 650,000—and prolonged outages in regions such as Balochistan.