ORGANISED crime in Pakistan is deeply entrenched. Pakistan`s strategic location, coupled with socioeconomic vulnerabilities, porous borders and weak institutional oversight, makes it both a source and transit hub for multiple transnational OC activities. OC is not confined to traditional mafia-style groups, but spans a complex spectrum of urban gangs, tribal smuggling clans, insurgent-linked syndicates and terrorist outfits.

OC in Pakistan manifests across multiple interconnected markets: Drug trafficking: The post-2022 Afghan Taliban opium ban saw a 95 per cent decline in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, leading to fears of its production shifting to Pakistan. As per the US 2024 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Pakistan is emerging yet again as a significant producer of opium (1,800 hectares were under poppy cultivation in 2023). Similarly, due to the ban, the market to manufacture methamphetamine may be expanding from Afghanistan to the Southwest Asian countries, including Pakistan.

Human trafficking: Human trafficking networks operate both at home and across borders.

Within the country, individuals are trafficked for purposes such as bonded labour, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and organised begging.

A growing trend involves trafficking people abroad spe cifically for begging, with over 5,000 Pakistani nationals deported from Saudi Arabia in 2024 and 2025 for this. In 2022, an estimated 26,539 trafficking victims were identified in Pakistan, with women comprising 75pc of the total (19,913), followed by 4,165 men, 2,170 boys and 287 girls.

Migrant smuggling: Pakistan is both a key origin and transit country for migrant smuggling.

Criminal networks exploit vulnerable populations, facilitating their movement through Iran and Turkiye en route to Europe. These operations are often connected to wider transnational criminal networks and involve human rights abuse.

According to HRCP, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistanis attempt irregular migration each year, using overland, maritime and air routes. Between 2021 and 2023, foreign authorities deported 154,205 individuals.

Firearms trafficking: Black markets for firearms, notably in areas such as Darra Adam Khel and surrounding tribal regions, continue to function with minimal interference. Illicit manufacturing and flow of firearms is amongst the most entrenched forms of OC in the country, deeply impacting national policy and law-enforcement efforts.

Cybercrime and financial fraud: Cybercrime isemerging as a significant threat in Pakistan, with increasing incidents of identity theft, online abuse targeting women and children, digital blackmail and the use of cryptocurrencies for laundering illicit funds. Cybercriminals frequently attack critical digital infrastructure eroding public confidence in online services. Alongside this, financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and corruption are key enablers of OC.

They facilitate illegal wealth accumulation, disrupt economic stability and weaken institutional integrity. Moreover, unchecked illicit financial flows damage Pakistan`s international financial standing and complicate its compliance with FATF conditions.

Pakistani OC groups exhibit hybrid structures that differ from mafia-style cartels: Urban syndicates: Predominantly found in Karachi and other metropolitan areas, these are semi-structured groups involved in extortion, utility control rackets (such as the water mafia), land grabbing, and drug retail markets. Their operations are often politically shielded and embedded in municipal institutions.

Tribal and borderland smuggling clans: In Balochistan and KP, loosely affiliated clans dominate smuggling networks. These groups are often embedded in local kinship and tribal systems, enabling both protection and mobility. Their decentralised nature allows them to evade state detection and adapt rapidly.

Militant-tied criminal groups: Some groups operate in symbiosis with terrorist networks, using criminal economies such as drug smuggling or extortion to fund operations. These dynamics blur the lines between OC, insurgency and terrorism, especially along the Afghan border.

OC groups in Pakistan utilise various operational tactics: Violence and coercion: Especially in Karachi and rural Sindh, extortionists, land mafias and human traffickers deploy violence, blackmail, and intimidation to assert dominance.

Corruption: State-embedded actors facilitate OC by providing safe passage, protection from prosecution, and intelligence leaks. Corruption in police, Customs, and municipal governance remains a powerful enabler.

Technology: Encrypted communications, dark web marketplaces, cryptocurrency laundering, and online scam infrastructure are being adopted, particularly in cybercrime and financial fraud.

Legal fronts and informal systems: Criminal proceeds are laundered through real estate and shell companies. The informal economy facilitatesunrecorded wealth flows and tax evasion.

OC groups exploit systemic inequality, poverty, and unemployment, especially among youth. In informal urban settlements and rural hinterlands, they act as parallel governance providers, offering employment, loans and protection. This cultivates loyalty and normalises criminal economies.

Further, clientage politics creates protection networks around OC actors. In such instances, election financing, land development and party patronage intertwine with criminal proceeds.

Pakistan lacks disaggregated and unified crime databases. Most agencies work in silos, leading to inconsistent data on arrests, convictions or transnational linkages. For instance, while ANF reported seizures of 176 metric tons of narcotics in 2024, it did not list prosecution outcomes or identify OC groups and network leadership. Key knowledge gaps also include absence of centralised data on human trafficking.

Multiple agencies FIA, ANF, Customs, and police departments operate without effective coordination. There is no national strategy to counter the groups. Judicial inefficiency and limited protection for whistleblowers, journalists, and investigators further erode enforcement effectiveness. Asset recovery remains weak, with little focus on disrupting financial flows and profit chains. OC in Pakistan is often framed narrowly as a law-enforcement issue, neglecting its deeper structural roots such as urban planning failures, gender inequality and elite capture. The dominance of anecdotal reports over empirical research weakens the design of evidence-based responses.

Pakistan must not be perceived as a fragile state. It must adopt a whole-of-government and society approach rooted in four strategic pillars: Prevent: Build social resilience through youth employment, urban development, and education.

Raise awareness against OC groups and increase civic participation.

Pursue: Strengthen intelligence-led policing, inter-agency coordination, and proactive prosecution. Focus on dismantling enablers, and not just street-level actors.

Protect: Ensure rights-based support for victims and targeted protection for investigators, whistle-blowers and journalists.

Promote partnerships: Engage civil society, private sector, and diaspora communities. Enhance regional cooperation and multilateral platforms like Saarc and the SCO. • The wnter is a former director general of FIA.