The EU’s GSP evaluation of Pakistan should be viewed as a trade-compliance exercise, not a one-sided moral judgment, as Pakistan is a major beneficiary (€7.5 billion in exports, €732 million in tariff exemptions estimated for 2024) while making legislative progress in areas like minority commissions, death penalty moratorium, and human rights bodies.

The report highlights real challenges (minority rights, enforcement gaps, blasphemy law misuse) but is criticized for selective focus and insufficient recognition of progress, institutional responses, and constitutional protections for religious freedom.

The author calls for balanced, evidence-based engagement with reciprocity: Pakistan must improve protection and inclusion, while the EU should address its own issues (e.g., Islamophobia, restrictions on religious symbols) and ensure transparent, consultative monitoring rather than using GSP as a tool for selective lecturing.

The European Union’s recent GSP evaluation of Pakistan must be taken as a trade-compliance exercise, and not an unequivocal moral judgment. Pakistan has been voluntarily accepting the monitoring of the scheme and has to take the human rights, labour standards, environmental protection and governance issues seriously. However, when legitimate scrutiny is selective, one-sided, and/or fails to pay attention to progress, it becomes uncredible. The big issue is not if Pakistan should be evaluated, but if it is balanced, is evidence based and is carried out under conditions and standards that European countries would be as willing as Pakistan to apply to themselves.

This report does not offer a clear-cut picture for 2023-2025. It identifies Pakistan as the biggest beneficiary of GSP , with exportable goods valued at around €7.5 billion and it is estimated that in 2024, Pakistan will receive tariff........

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