November 3, 2025
By Iqra Manzoor
LAHORE
A 24-year-old Karachi-based lawyer, Alisha Shabbir, filed a petition before the Sindh High Court (SHC) in October, making a constitutional argument, that menstrual hygiene products must be recognized as ‘essential health items’, not taxable goods.
The petition is the second filed this year taking the government to task over taxing menstrual products, with the first one being filed in the Lahore High Court by Mahnoor Omer in September, using the same arguments.
Speaking to Voicepk, Shabbir said her petition, filed through senior counsel Advocate Farhatullah Yaseen Kalwar, is a collective initiative of their law firm, The Legal Guards.
“This isn’t just my individual effort, it’s part of a collective initiative to start a meaningful conversation about menstrual health and accessibility for women in Pakistan,” she said. “We want menstrual hygiene to be recognized in law and policy as a matter of women’s health, dignity, and equal rights.”
Her petition calls for sanitary napkins to be classified as essential items under the Sixth Schedule of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, which would make them exempt from sales tax. She has also requested that the raw materials used in their production be moved to the Eighth Schedule, with reduced duties and full input tax adjustments, ensuring manufacturers can lower retail prices.
“Currently, sanitary napkins are taxed at 18%, the same as cosmetics or perfumes. That classification is fundamentally wrong,” said Shabbir. “It makes these products unaffordable for millions of women, particularly those from low-income backgrounds. We’ve asked the court to declare this taxation unconstitutional because it violates fundamental rights, the rights to life, dignity, equality, and social justice guaranteed under Articles 9, 14, 25, and 38 of the Constitution.”
She added that scientific and public health evidence clearly supports the need for accessible menstrual products.
“When sanitary pads are heavily taxed, women are forced to use unsafe alternatives like cloth or paper, which can cause infections and other health complications. A woman spends nearly 40 to 45 years of her life menstruating, one week every month. If she can’t manage this natural process hygienically, it affects her health, education, work, and mental well-being.”
Breaking the silence around menstrual health
For Shabbir, the petition is not only a legal step but also a social one.
“In a country where even talking about menstruation is taboo, filing this petition is a way to break the silence. It’s time we bring menstrual health into public discourse where it belongs,” she said.
She points out that nearly 40 percent of the retail price of a pack of sanitary napkins comes from taxes and duties.
“A basic pack costs around Rs300 right now. If those taxes are lifted, the price could drop to about Rs180, that difference may not seem much on paper, but for millions of women, it’s the line between being able to manage their periods safely or resorting to unsafe alternatives.”
Her petition also recommends that sanitary pads be made freely available in schools and public institutions to help girls stay in school and reduce stigma.
“It’s a small step that can have a lasting impact on education, confidence, and health,” she said.
The first hearing of Shabbir’s petition took place on October 31, 2025, where the SHC bench acknowledged the issue as one of genuine public interest and issued notices to the federal government, FBR, and Attorney General of Pakistan. The next hearing is expected in mid-November.
A shared fight for dignity
Both the petitions, filed in Punjab and Sindh, mark an important moment in Pakistan’s ongoing struggle to make menstrual health a matter of policy, not privilege.
While Mahnoor Omer’s petition demands the complete removal of the “period tax” as a discriminatory fiscal policy, Alisha Shabbir’s case complements it by seeking judicial recognition of menstrual hygiene products as essential health items rather than luxury or non-essential goods under constitutional protections of life and dignity.
At their core, both cases assert the same principle, that menstruation is not a choice, and taxing it is tantamount to taxing women for existing.
Omer, also a lawyer filed the public interest petition before the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court, challenging the taxation regime that treats sanitary pads as non-essential goods. Her petition argues that by taxing menstrual products at the same rate as cosmetics or luxury items, the state is effectively penalizing women for a natural biological process.
“We filed the petition in early September, and so far, an order has gone out by Justice Jawad and another judge, directing the government to respond to our petition. Ahsan [Jahangir] and I filed this not only as lawyers but as activists working for women’s rights. What we’re demanding is that all forms of excessive taxation, sales tax, customs duty, and import duties on menstrual products and their raw materials be scrapped altogether.”
She added that the issue was not limited to affordability for low-income households.
“Even women from the upper socio-economic classes are finding these products increasingly unaffordable. This isn’t just about economics, it’s about dignity and health. Taxing menstrual products is effectively an attack on a biological function.”
Omer emphasized that her goal extends beyond tax relief to policy reform.
“We hope that laws and fiscal policies stop being made in a gender-blind manner. Pakistan has more women in parliament now, including a female chief minister in its largest province. Our legislators must start creating gender-responsive policies so that citizens don’t have to turn to the courts to demand basic rights. It’s not the judiciary’s job to make laws, it’s parliament’s job to make sure they reflect constitutional principles of equality.”
The petition, titled Mahnoor Omer vs. Federation of Pakistan, names the Ministries of Law and Justice, Finance, and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) among others as respondents, alongside the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR). It seeks the removal of all taxes on menstrual products and their components, calling the existing structure discriminatory and unconstitutional.
She described the taxation of menstrual hygiene products as reflective of “the state’s disregard for women’s health and equality.” The petition, filed as public interest litigation, highlights that the existing tax regime disproportionately burdens women by treating a biological necessity as a taxable luxury.
Khan, who is Omer’s lawyer in the case, says that fighting the taxes is about more than accessibility and affordability of sanitary pads – it’s about justice. “It’s a tax on a biological function,” he says.
Tax policies in Pakistan, he argues, are written by “a privileged elite, mostly men who have never had to think about what this tax means for ordinary women.” The constitution, he adds, “is very clear that you cannot have anything discriminatory against any gender whatsoever.”