The Islamabad High Court’s recent judgment, addressing the hazardous and degrading working conditions of sewerage laborers, represents a significant development in Pakistan’s constitutional discourse on equality, labor protection, and minority rights. Authored by Justice Raja Inaam Ameen Minhas, the decision in CROLI & PUCM v. Federation of Pakistan moves beyond conventional adjudication, offering a structural critique of state inaction and positioning the lives of sewerage workers, predominantly Christians, within a framework of constitutional rights, international norms, and historical marginalization.

At the core of the judgment lies an unflinching recognition of manual scavenging and sewerage work as both a public health necessity and a site of entrenched inequality. The Court highlights that more than 70 sewerage workers have died since 1988 due to exposure to toxic underground gases, with at least 10 documented deaths since 2019 alone. These fatalities were overwhelmingly linked to the non-provision of protective gear and safety protocols. Drawing on findings from the National Commission for Human Rights and civil society organisations, the Court underscores the disproportionate representation of Christians, estimated at over 80 percent, in sewerage-related occupations, despite their small demographic footprint. This statistic signals not merely labour segregation but an ongoing form of socio-religious stratification that has survived well into the modern constitutional era.

Justice Minhas’s reasoning situates these empirical findings within Pakistan’s constitutional architecture. Article 9 (right to life), Article 25 (equality before the law), and Article 27 (prohibition of discrimination in public employment) form the normative backbone of the judgment. Rather than treating these provisions as isolated........

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