Pakistan’s State of Freedom
Mishal Pakistan’s first-of-its-kind State of Freedom Report 2026 offers an important opportunity to rethink how freedom is understood in Pakistan. Too often, freedom is discussed only through the narrow lens of politics, constitutional rights, or public protest. Those areas matter, of course, but a citizen’s lived experience of freedom is also shaped by whether they can choose a career, start a business, access education, use digital tools, participate in elections, and build a better future. In that sense, the report’s findings are significant because they move the national conversation from abstract debate to measurable public perception. The most striking figure is that 77% of respondents believe Pakistanis are free to choose their profession and career path. As the highest-rated freedom indicator in the survey, this finding says something powerful about how people view personal mobility, ambition, and the right to shape one’s own economic future.
This does not mean that every Pakistani has equal access to opportunity. Social class, geography, gender, family expectations, quality of education, and local economic conditions still influence career choices in very real ways. A young person in a major city may have access to universities, digital platforms, professional networks, and private-sector jobs, while a young person in a remote district may face a much narrower field of options. Yet the public perception that career choice is relatively free should not be dismissed. It reflects a deeper shift in social imagination. Pakistanis increasingly believe that professional identity is not fixed by birth, caste, region, or family occupation.
The idea that one can become a freelancer, entrepreneur, teacher, engineer, journalist, designer, coder, trader, or public servant is itself a form of social progress
The report’s finding that 75% of respondents believe businesses can operate without undue government interference is equally important. Pakistan’s business environment is often described in terms of red tape, taxation challenges, regulatory uncertainty, and bureaucratic delays. Those concerns remain valid, but the survey suggests that many citizens and entrepreneurs still see room for enterprise and growth. This matters because business freedom is closely tied to economic confidence. People invest their savings, time, and skills when they believe effort can produce results. A society that sees business as possible is a society that can generate employment, innovation, and local resilience. This is especially important in Pakistan, where small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 90% of businesses and employ nearly 80% of the non-agricultural workforce. SMEs are not a side story in Pakistan’s economy; they are the economy’s working spine.
Women’s opportunities are another major theme in the report, with 75% of respondents viewing them positively. This is a hopeful sign, but it must be read carefully. Positive perception does not automatically mean full equality. Many women still face barriers in mobility, workplace safety, family approval, pay equity, access to finance, and representation in leadership. However, the fact that a large share of respondents recognizes women’s access to education, employment, and participation in public life as improving is meaningful. It suggests that the social legitimacy of women’s public role is strengthening. Pakistan’s future will depend heavily on whether this perception is converted into policy and practice.
More girls in school, more women in universities, more women in technology, more women in business, and more women in decision-making are not symbolic gains. They are economic and democratic necessities
The digital dimension of the report may be the most transformative. With over 190 million cellular subscriptions, up to 150 million broadband users, and around 70 million social media users, Pakistan is no longer a disconnected society. Digital connectivity has changed how citizens learn, work, speak, organize, trade, and imagine their place in the world. The report’s reference to a fiber-optic backbone exceeding 230,000 kilometers and international internet capacity reaching 17.21 Tbps shows that the country’s digital infrastructure has expanded considerably. These are not merely technical indicators. They represent the roads and bridges of the modern knowledge economy. In today’s world, internet access is not a luxury. It is a gateway to education, finance, markets, civic expression, and employment.
This is why Pakistan’s position as one of the world’s leading freelance economies is so important. The report notes that IT and freelance exports exceed $3 billion annually, supported by a young population and an expanding technology sector. This is one of Pakistan’s strongest opportunity narratives. Freelancing allows young people to bypass some of the limitations of the domestic job market and compete internationally. It also allows talent from smaller cities and towns to enter global value chains without migrating abroad. Yet this opportunity requires sustained support: reliable internet, digital payment systems, skills training, English and communication capacity, tax clarity, cybersecurity awareness, and professional certification. Pakistan has the demographic advantage, but demographics alone do not create prosperity. Skills do.
The report also highlights more than 240 recognized universities and degree-awarding institutions, reflecting the breadth of Pakistan’s higher education system. This is a major asset, but the question is no longer just how many institutions exist. The real question is whether they are preparing students for the future. A degree should not be a piece of paper disconnected from the economy. Universities must become engines of research, entrepreneurship, technological adaptation, civic responsibility, and problem-solving.
Pakistan’s large youth population can become a historic advantage only if education is aligned with employability, innovation, and ethical citizenship
The 2024 General Elections, with 128.5 million registered voters and more than 92,000 polling stations nationwide, also show the scale of Pakistan’s democratic infrastructure. Electoral participation at such a level is administratively significant. However, democratic freedom cannot be reduced to the mechanics of voting alone. It also requires trust, transparency, informed debate, institutional credibility, and meaningful citizen participation between elections. A citizen is not free only on polling day. A citizen is free when they can speak, question, organize, work, learn, create, and participate without fear or exclusion.
The most useful way to read the State of Freedom Report 2026 is neither as a celebration nor as a denial of Pakistan’s challenges. It should be read as a diagnostic document. It shows where public confidence exists and where that confidence can be turned into national progress. Pakistan’s freedoms are uneven, but they are not absent. Its opportunities are real, but they are not equally distributed. The task ahead is to close the gap between perception and lived reality. If career choice, business activity, women’s participation, digital access, education, entrepreneurship, and democratic engagement are strengthened together, Pakistan can build a more confident and capable society. Freedom, after all, is not only the absence of restriction. It is the presence of possibility.
