Pakistan was created with the promise of a society in which citizenship, rather than religion, would determine the rights and dignity of an individual. In his historic address to the Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah spoke of religious freedom, protection of life and property, and a state in which citizens would be able to live according to their faith. The National Assembly itself continues to describe that address as laying the foundation for religious freedom, equality, tolerance and the rule of law. Yet Pakistan's subsequent history presents a complicated picture. While the principle of equal citizenship was proclaimed at the birth of the country, the State simultaneously recognised that some historically disadvantaged communities could not achieve genuine equality merely through a declaration of equal rights. This was the reasoning behind affirmative measures for Scheduled Castes and, decades later, for religious minorities.

The roots of the Scheduled Castes classification go back to British India. Under the Government of India Act, 1935, the colonial constitutional system formally provided for identification of communities requiring special safeguards, followed by the Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1936. The underlying purpose was to identify communities that had suffered generations of social exclusion and discrimination under the caste system.

After the creation of Pakistan, the new state did not simply discard this inherited protective principle. On 19 October 1948, the Establishment Division issued O.M. No. 56/2/48-Ests.(ME), reserving 6% of vacancies in direct recruitment to the All-Pakistan Superior Services and Central Services, Classes I, II and III, for Scheduled Castes. The policy therefore became part of Pakistan's own post-Independence administrative framework.

The decision was not merely symbolic. By 1957, the government had recognised that the reserved vacancies were not being adequately utilised because qualified candidates were often unavailable. Instead of simply abandoning the arrangement, the........

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