The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) appeared before the Federal Constitutional Court on Friday in a landmark constitutional petition filed under Article 184, seeking a nationwide ban on manual sewer cleaning and the enforcement of health and safety regulations for sanitation workers.
A statement issued by the commission said the case was heard by a three-member bench headed by Justice Aminuddin.
In its petition, the NCHR underscored the severe dangers sanitation workers face while performing highly hazardous and often fatal tasks without protective gear, training, or occupational safety protocols.
The commission argued that the continued practice of manual sewer cleaning violates several fundamental rights, including the right to life, dignity, equality, and safe working conditions.
The petition further noted that Pakistan still lacks a unified national health and safety framework for sanitation work.
Due to weak regulatory enforcement and inadequate emergency-response systems, workers remain vulnerable to toxic gases, fatal injuries, and preventable deaths.
During the hearing, Barrister Iqbal Nasar, appearing pro bono on behalf of NCHR, informed the court that yet another sanitation worker had died in a gutter in Sindh just a day earlier.
He stressed that the persistence of such inhumane working conditions demands urgent government intervention.
Following the arguments, the Federal Constitutional Court issued notices to the respondents.
“Manual cleaning of gutters is brutal and dehumanising. No person’s life should be put at risk for a task that should never require human hands in the first place,” said NCHR Chairperson Rabiya Javeri Agha, who attended the hearing.
The case marks the first hearing of its kind by the Federal Constitutional Court, examining the rights of sanitation workers through a constitutional perspective potentially setting a precedent for labour dignity, occupational safety, and equal protection under the law.
About Time…Really!!! Sewer cleaning machinery are common Govt should use them and private sewer cleaners should be stopped from climbing down gutters, that is inhuman and too gross for an eye to watch!
Bigger question
Since when did pakistan or India care about human rights commission ?
Better yet when has pakistan, india, uk, usa, Israel ever cared about what human rights commission said ?
Kindly site example if anyone can
Sorry but manual cleaning to some extent will always exist. What we can do is regulate this work and apply tough standards and safety rules, provide insurance premium to workers, high salary, better tools and machines to minimize the human use as much as possible.
السلام علیکم محترم بھائی جان آپ نے کبھی صفائی والوں کے لیے بھی بات کی