Current Pakistan CPINs
The Home Office publishes Country Policy Information Notes (CPINs) on Pakistan covering Ahmadis (Version 6.0, March 2025), Shia Muslims (July 2021), Healthcare and Medical Treatment (July 2024), and Country of Origin Background (current). The March 2025 Ahmadis CPIN is the most significant recent update, confirming state able but unwilling protection, rising killings, and police complicity.
MN and Others (Ahmadis - country conditions) Pakistan CG [2012] UKUT 00389 provides leading Upper Tribunal country guidance that tribunals continue to apply alongside current CPINs. Solicitors should cite both the CPIN and country guidance where relevant to the appellant's profile.
How to Use CPINs in Tribunal Submissions
CPINs are not binding on tribunals but carry significant weight. Solicitors should identify the relevant CPIN for the appellant's profile, extract the key findings, and address whether the appellant's individual circumstances fall within or outside the general CPIN position.
Where the CPIN supports the appellant, cite it directly. Where it does not, instruct an expert to provide independent analysis challenging the CPIN's general findings with profile-specific and locality-specific evidence.
The Expert Role Beyond the CPIN
An expert witness does not simply reproduce CPIN content. The expert's role is to provide independent, objective analysis of whether the appellant's specific profile creates a real risk, applying current field research and source citations beyond the CPIN.
Reports that merely restate CPIN findings without independent analysis are a red flag identified in the Adam Pipe October 2025 guide on expert reports in the immigration tribunal. Experts must address the individual factual matrix, not generic country summaries.
Challenging CPIN Findings
CPINs can be challenged with field research, updated country evidence, NGO reports, and profile-specific analysis. Common challenge areas include actors of protection (state able but unwilling for Ahmadis and blasphemy accusees), internal relocation for women fleeing honour violence, and political persecution risk for PTI supporters.
Expert reports supporting CPIN challenges must cite sources to OSCOLA standards and address the Immigration Tribunal Practice Direction paragraph 10 requirements for expert evidence. Legal Aid prior authority is required before instruction in most asylum proceedings.