Sindh Assembly passes bill for legal cover to household workers

KARACHI: In a move to protect some of the province’s most overlooked workers, the Sindh Assembly on Monday passed the Domestic Workers Welfare Bill 2025, bringing formal safeguards to the employment and working conditions of household workers across the province.

According to the bill, which requires gubernatorial assent to become law, a domestic worker is defined as a person who does domestic work in a household.

The new law lays down clear terms for employment and working conditions, requiring employers to provide domestic workers with rest breaks, medical care, a minimum number of meals and regulated working hours.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar presented the bill along with the report and approval of the Standing Committee on Labour and Human Resources.

As per the bill, no child below the age of 16 shall be allowed to work in a household in any capacity.

New law bars employment below 16s in households; full-time and live-in workers cannot be made to work more than eight hours a day or over six days a week

The law requires that, for every employment or appointment of a domestic worker, an employment letter in the prescribed form must be issued, and a copy submitted to the concerned labour inspector, either manually or digitally.

A full-time or live-in domestic worker may work for no more than eight hours a day. No full-time or part-time domestic worker can be required to work more than six days a week.

A female worker engaged in domestic work shall be entitled to six weeks of paid maternity leave.

Every domestic worker shall be entitled to 10 casual days of leave and eight sick leaves with full wages in a year.

Under the law, a Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC), headed by a grade-16 officer, would be constituted to hear and resolve all disputes or complaints.

The labour department will also appoint an appellate authority in each district to hear and decide appeals against DRC decisions.

Govt to bring 500 EV buses for Karachi

Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, who also heads the transport and mass transit departments, told the assembly that the provincial government had approved the procurement of 500 more electric vehicle (EV) buses for Karachi on a public-private partnership model.

Responding to a call attention notice by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) member Naseer Ahmed, he said that the new EV buses would operate on three routes covering Ittehad Town, Banaras Colony, Liaquatabad, Jahangir Road and Cantt Station.

He said that new routes would also be introduced for the areas of Orangi Ghaziabad, Iqbal Market, Walika, Nazimabad No. 2, Ayesha Manzil and Zahoor Chowk.

The MQM-P lawmaker pointed out that there was no public transport from Surjani Chowrangi to Banaras Chowk and asked the senior minister what initiative was being taken to resolve the issue.

Mr Memon said that there was previously no concept of EV buses in the country, and that the Pakistan Peoples Party introduced these buses.

“Ridership on the Orange Line has increased,” he said, adding that new routes had also been introduced from Gulshan-i-Maymar.

In reply to a call for attention by MQM-P’s Maaz Mehboob, Home Minister Lanjar said that strict action would be taken not only against drugs but also against the gutka mafia, and no leniency would be shown to them.

The MQM-P member said that gutka and mawa were being sold everywhere, including in his constituency, and that the trade “was operating under police patronage”.

The home minister said that police were continuously taking action against drug dealers, which deserved appreciation.

He said that the law on gutka and mawa was bailable. “Some people claim they are making ‘legal gutka’, but betel nut was being smuggled in illegally and used in gutka.

He said gutka use was high in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Benazirabad, and it had led to an increase in mouth cancer cases.

Responding to the call for attention of MQM-P’s Musarrat Jabeen, Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said the child who died at the Dow University Hospital (Ojha Campus) had stage 4 lung cancer and did not die due to negligence.

She said the child was not on a ventilator and was brought to the hospital at a very late stage.

Meanwhile, Speaker Syed Awais Shah rejected an adjournment motion moved by MQM-P’s Aamir Siddiqui regarding the absence of traffic police at city traffic signals.

The speaker ruled the motion out of order hitting provisions of assembly rules. Opposing the motion, the law and parliamentary minister said that adjournment motion was for urgent issues.

The house also passed “The Benazir Institute of Urology and Transplant, Nawabshah Bill, 2026”.

Later, the House was adjourned to Tuesday (today).

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2026