Mr. Justice Gulzar Ahmed,

Honorable Chief Justice,

Supreme Court of Pakistan

Your Honour,

An Appeal for  Suo Moto notice on the cruel and inhuman working conditions and deaths of  Non-Muslim janitorial staff  in the  Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

As a citizen of Pakistan, I appeal to your Honour to take notice of the appalling conditions and unending deaths of Non-Muslim sanitary workers  who are made to enter the dark depths of sewage gutters, and end up with  their naked bodies soaked with raw excreta and their lungs choked with poisonous gases.  The inhumanity, cruelty and indignity of this happening every day in the 21^st century Pakistan would have been objectionable even to the janitors of the 4500 years old Mohenjo Daro civilization.

Your Honour, at 11 PM, in the night between 3^rd and 4^th October 2021, Faisal Masih and Nadeem Masih, of Metropolitan Corporation Sargodha died in the deep and choked sewage gutters of Sargodha’s Main Road Chungi Number 9.  They were trying to rescue a third colleague Michael  Masih, who had entered earlier, got choked and was desperately yelling for help.  While Michael Masih survived with severe injuries and harm to lungs and eyes, the two rescuers died in the process. An FIR against 3 Muslim supervisors of Metropolitan Corporation Sargodha, who forced these 3 Non-Muslim janitors to enter the deep sewage gutters at midnight on a Sunday was lodged on 4^th Oct 2021. (FIR. Se.no. 612/21, E Tag no. ST-10/4/2021-5629).

Your Honour, this is not an isolated incident but a chain of unending deaths of Non- Muslim janitors,  repeatedly happening  every few months, for the last  74 years in Pakistan.  The death of the two Christian janitors of Sargodha on 4^th October 2021 is a result of a poorly designed archaic, inhuman and decadent  system, whose pitfalls are well understood by everyone in power.  However as there is never a Chief Minister, a Chief Secretary or a Municipal Commissioner who has been held accountable and punished, this cruelty and barbarity has continued for the last 74 years and is likely to continue for the next 1000 years.

Your Honour,  I appeal to you to kindly take urgent Suo Moto notice on the specific issue of the death (by drowning and suffocating in a raw sewage gutter) of two Non-Muslim janitors Faisal Masih and Nadeem Masih, and order arrest and trial of the following individuals, for their criminal negligence:

1. Chief Minister Punjab
2. Chief Secretary Punjab
3. Minister for Local Government, Punjab
4. Secretary for Local Government Punjab
5. Chief Executive Officer Sargodha Metropolitan Corporation.

Your Honour,  Nadeem Masih who died in Sargodha incident, was being paid illegal wages averaging Rs.12,000 pm and was working for 18 years with no EOBI or Social Security. There could be no higher example of cruelty and exploitation.  Sadly this deplorable state of human rights violations exists in all Municipal Committees and Cantonments of Pakistan.

You are therefore also requested to order the Federal Government and all the Chief Ministers of the provinces to ensure and confirm that no janitor will ever be made to enter a sewage gutter, unless the following conditions (already required by law) have been met by every Metropolitan /Municipality and every Cantonment of Pakistan.:

1. That complete, full body safety equipment, breathing apparatus, gas testing, rescue personnel and entry and exit arrangements have been ensured prior to entry in a gutter.
2. That every sanitary worker receives at least the legal minimum wages, is registered with EOBI and has a Social Security Insurance.

Most respectfully,

Naeem Sadiq

A citizen of Pakistan