The Constitution of Pakistan guarantees the protection of certain fundamental human rights and freedoms to ensure the full participation and protection of minorities in the country’s economic and social systems. This includes protection against discrimination in employment, promotion of social justice, eradication of social evils and promotion of the social and economic well-being of the people.

Article 14 states that the dignity of every person is inviolable. Article 18 guarantees the right to a lawful profession or occupation. Articles 20, 22, 26 and 27 provide additional safeguards for minorities.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has repeatedly directed the governments to ensure and maintain the employment quotas for minorities at all levels and to avoid “discriminatory and demeaning advertisements flouting the dignity and self-respect of minorities.”

The landmark judgment by Justice Tassaduq Jillani in 2014 emphasised the importance of an affirmative approach to laws and policies regarding religious minorities. The Supreme Court had directed the federal and provincial governments to enforce the job quota reserved for minorities, create institutions for monitoring and enforcing laws to protect minorities, and, most importantly, establish a national council or commission for minorities. Its terms of reference had to include making policy recommendations.

At the beginning of 2023, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, now the senior puisne judge of the top court, authored a judgment dismissing a petition challenging the seats reserved for minorities and persons with disabilities in employment. The ruling urged the state to safeguard the rights of these communities and provide equality of status and opportunity. “Other than general seats, the additional provision of quota for persons with disabilities and minorities reaffirms the constitutional commitment,” the ruling stated, adding, “This quota is their constitutional right and cannot be reversed or made available to other citizens.”

The court noted that the National Commission for Human Rights had pointed out in many advertisements, under eligibility requirements, there was a clause stating that “only non-Muslims apply.” “Such discriminatory advertisements and employment selection processes limit the job quota only for low-level posts. This act is offensive to the constitutional values and the fundamental rights of the minorities,” the court observed.

Chairman of the One-Man Commission on Minorities Rights, Dr Shoaib Suddle, says that the “commission is gradually making progress in implementation of a five per cent job quota for minorities.”

The commission was set up after the landmark 2014 judgment by the Supreme Court to safeguard the rights of the religious minorities.

Some efforts were made after the SC direction in 2014. “All ministries/ Divisions were requested to ensure strict implementation of 5 per cent employment quota reserved for minorities (non-Muslims) in letter and spirit for recruitment in the departments under their administrative control”, the Establishment Division said in a letter, a couple of years ago.

This letter made it to several publications after the SC expressed its concern over more than 30,000 vacancies against minorities employment quota in 2021. The court observed that the governments were apparently not recruiting minority applicants in accordance with the legislated quota.

A recent report submitted before SC reads: “With the efforts of the One-Man Commission, the Federal and Provincial Governments have to date filled 17,924 posts against the 49,457 available minority vacancies (Annex-G/Page No. 47) while 31,533 vacancies still exist. The One-Man Commission is persistently urging the Federal/ Provincial Governments that not a single minority quota vacancy should remain.”

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country’s religious minorities’ population is around 3.5 per cent of the total (census results of 2023). Most of the religious minority citizens are considered socially and economically marginalized. This is visible in the disproportionate presence of minority communities among the poorer sections/ localities, the bonded labour and the unemployed.

“The government launched an Action Plan for Human Rights that promised to enforce implementation of the 5 per cent job quota allocated for minorities in letter and spirit. However, the government has failed to improve implementation of the employment quota,” a past report titled Implementation of job quota for religious minorities in Pakistan had said.

The report was based on a study conducted by the Centre for Social Justice, a non-government organisation working on minority rights, and the Peoples Commission for Minorities’ Rights.

As per data compiled by the Services & General Administration Department, and submitted by the Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Department, Government of the Punjab to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in July 2018, 5,151 recruitments were made against 8,337 posts on minority quota basis. The data provided by the Punjab government revealed that 3,186 posts were vacant till this submission in the apex court.

The study recommended that the government(s) must introduce more enablers for the empowerment of minorities and an educational package (infrastructure, nutrition and motivation) to address low literacy rates among minorities through educational quotas for admission to educational institutions.

The study also emphasised that the government should curb discriminatory practices in the public sector by ensuring that all government departments and institutions comply with the rules of service, including advertising all jobs.

The writer, a staff member, can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets at @waqargillani