This seems to be an uncomfortable summer for Pakistan. Forced labour and weak enforcement were raised as concerns in the EU’s GSP monitoring report. Labour Behind the Label, a UK group, published Silenced, based on 255 interviews with workers in eight factories that make products for brands such as Levi’s, H&M and Gap. It cited the intimidation of workers, complaint boxes placed under CCTV cameras, and the dismissal of about fifty workers from a Lahore factory for voicing their concerns about unpaid bonuses.

The urge in Islamabad and in the world of industry is to describe this as a pile-on at a time when Pakistan’s influence is rising and its security ties with the Gulf states are strengthening as well. There might be some truth to that. Countries that start to matter more also start to attract more attention. But this observation should not be the entire argument. It explains the timing; it does not answer the substance.

And the substance deserves an answer, not a dismissal. There is no confusion about what........

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