Citizens’ Commission for Equality and Human Rights – Report 2025

Placed below is the ‘Citizens’ Commission for Equality and Human Rights Report 2025 report for the year 2025.

Summary:

The 2025 Annual Report of the ‘Citizens Commission for Equality and Human Rights’ (CCEHR) examines the state of equality and human rights among the most marginalized, oppressed, and discriminated segments of Pakistan’s workforce. The report is based on research, surveys, interviews, information obtained under Article 19A (Right to Information) and officially released documents and notifications.

2025 unfolded as a year of discontent and disillusionment for the poor, even as it became a year of considerable indulgence and pampering for the rich – further stretching the unhealthy divide between the two.    The state showed remarkable urgency and compulsion in enhancing the pay, perks, vehicles and even aeroplanes for parliamentarians, judges, and senior government officials, while displaying gross indifference and neglect toward improving the wages or working conditions of Pakistan’s enormously underpaid and exploited workforce.

Almost 100 sanitation workers lost their lives across Pakistan. They were made to enter and perform manual scavenging with their bare hands in raw sewage gutters. Approximately 12000 sanitation workers working through Chinese and Turkish companies in Karachi, continued to receive cruel and illegal wages of Rs18000 – Rs20,000, although the minimum wage in Sindh had been officially raised to Rs40,000 since 1 July 2025.  About one million private security guards received no respite in working hours or salaries, as they continue to be exploited to work for 12 hours every day for wages that range between Rs25,000 and Rs40,000 per month. About one hundred miners lost their lives in the deathly coal mines. The state continued to deprive over 95 percent of workers their right to be registered with EOBI or social security.

We are grateful for the feedback, suggestions and inspiration received from numerous individuals who even in extreme adversity, manage to bravely cope with the disparity, atrocity and exploitation thrust upon them.  We believe that improving social, economic and emotional lives of the downtrodden is vital to building a progressive, tolerant and progressive Pakistan. We appeal to all government departments, regulatory bodies and members of civil society to take practical steps to ensure provision of the minimum legal wage, EOBI, social security, overtime, and other legal rights to every worker of Pakistan.

Sincerely,    

Sara Malkani         Naeem Sadiq      Dr. Kartar Dawani            Tahera Hasan

Citizens’ Commission for Equality and Human Rights Report 2025