Witness Protection requires participants of the criminal justice system to ensure that the risk of threat of any harm to the life of a person cooperating in the process of holding perpetrators liable is dealt with. The primary responsibility to protect witnesses and victims alike falls on the State. Pakistan has introduced laws for the purpose of witness protection,18 however its enforcement remains lacking and political influence, corruption and bribery in the justice system allows for witnesses to be made to give statements under duress, or to retract statements during trial. To this end, we have conducted efforts to provide witness protection in the Usman Mirza case, which gained much national interest when videos of the defendant went viral on the internet where he can be seen harassing, threatening, and abusing a young couple. As the case was under trial, the victims became hostile, owing to external pressures and refused to give a statement against the perpetrator. Our office took notice of the issue and the Chairperson, along with other members attended court hearings and gave recommendations which included the use of the Witness Protection Law. We highlighted the need to reform witness protection in Pakistan and ensured––through our intervention in the case––that the court ensures justice without any external influences. A similar trend was witnessed in the Nazim Jokhio case who was killed after being tortured by a Member of the Sindh Assembly. Our provincial counterpart hosted a meeting of a group of civil society organisations as well as a Joint Action Committee to discuss next steps to ensure speedy justice to the victim’s family. The JAC met with the victim’s wife and held a press conference to counter the prosecution teams tactics in delaying the case. It was noted that the prosecution department had also been pressurised by the perpetrator as he was a highly influential person. Despite the efforts made by us, the victim’s wife was pressured into issuing a video wherein she pardoned all the accused who had been named in the case. However, efforts are underway in ensuring that justice is met in this case. We have developed a Report on federal and provincial prosecution departments. It highlights the issues that continue to plague Pakistan’s criminal justice system which include: lack of service structure or structures for promotions, lack of defined terms and conditions for the prosecution department, nonprovision of special judicial allowance, lack of human resources, lack of ability to conduct scientific and reliable evidence, lack of witness protection programs, lack of coordination between prosecutors and police and overwhelming dependence on ocular evidence which may be retracted by witnesses due to influence, pressure and duress. Corruption within the system also impedes the ability of the criminal justice system to do justice in most cases which means that those who can pay their way out of crimes will do so. This has been observed by our work both in the Usman Mirza, and the Nazim Jokhio case. Additional Recommendations:    Identify barriers to enforcement of the domestic witness protection regime. Develop plan of action to operationalise and enforce the domestic witness protection regime Development a special law for ICT Prosecution Department so that it can attain organisational independence, establish particular policies for promotions, define the role of the prosecutor Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act, 2017, Punjab Witness Protection Act, 2018, KP Witness Protection Act, 2021, Sindh Witness Protection Act, 2013 and Balochistan Witness Protection Act, 2016. 18 7