Home » Judgments
Pakistani Family Law Judgments
Supreme Court, Federal Shariat Court and High Court judgments on Khulla, divorce, custody, maintenance and more, summarised in plain English by our lawyers and reviewed by an advocate.
Showing 1–30 of 67 judgments
Grandfather’s maintenance: present capacity is separate from past liability
Allah Rakha alias Irshad v. Province of Sindh and another
Issue: Where a child's father has died, can the paternal grandfather be ordered to pay the child's monthly and past maintenance, and what…
Held: The grandfather remained liable for monthly maintenance of Rs. 7,000: he admitted income from a bakery and brought no evidence of incapacity. But the courts below had missed the mother's earlier bond undertaking to bear the child's expenses, which was…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.14, Family Courts Act 1964s.491, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898
A QR-verifiable CFMS copy did not satisfy the certified-copy rule in a guardian appeal
Sadam Hussain v. Mst. Shahneela and others
Issue: Does a digital copy of a Family Court order downloaded from the court's Case Flow Management System (CFMS), verifiable by QR code,…
Held: No. Rule 22(3) of the Family Court Rules 1965 expressly requires a certified copy, and a CFMS copy does not meet it even though it can be authenticated by QR code. But because the appellate court did not object at…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973r.22(1), Family Courts Rules 1965r.22(3), Family Courts Rules 1965s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
A section 12(2) application cannot simply reopen a contested family decree
Muhammad Afzal v. Maria Tariq and others
Issue: Can a party who fully contested a family suit reopen the decree under section 12(2) CPC, and is a claim that former…
Held: No on both points. The petitioner had contested the suit in full and his section 12(2) CPC application identified no fraud, misrepresentation or concealment of the kind the provision requires; a bare assertion that former counsel did not disclose the…
r.22, Family Courts Rules 1965s.12(2), Code of Civil Procedure 1908s.14, Family Courts Act 1964s.5, Limitation Act 1908
Arresting a husband to enforce a family decree is a last resort with strict safeguards
Pervaiz Ahmed v. Additional District Judge & others
Issue: Can an executing court arrest a judgment debtor under a family decree and detain him for a year without first giving a…
Held: No. Under Order XXI rule 37 the court must give the judgment debtor an opportunity to show cause before issuing an arrest warrant, and under the proviso to section 51 it may order detention only on reasons recorded in writing…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973O.XXI r.37, Code of Civil Procedure 1908s.51, Code of Civil Procedure 1908
Under the Punjab child-marriage law, cohabitation must be shown before the heavier charge applies
Mayoon v. The State, etc.
Issue: Is a man who married a girl under 18 in April 2026 entitled to post-arrest bail, where the case was registered under…
Held: Yes. The Ordinance is a special law that deals separately with cohabitation in a child marriage: section 5 makes it child abuse (five to seven years) and deliberately uses 'cohabitation' rather than 'rape', and the marriage itself is not declared…
s.3, Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Ordinance 2026s.376, Pakistan Penal Code 1860s.4, Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Ordinance 2026s.497, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898
High Court custody relief is provisional; a parental agreement cannot override the child’s welfare
Mst. Farah d/o Mukhtiyar Ahmed Khan v. Province of Sindh and others
Issue: Can the High Court, in a constitutional petition for recovery of a young child, decide custody when the father relies on a…
Held: Only provisionally. Article 199(1)(b)(i) may be used in exceptional cases to protect a minor's immediate welfare, but final custody is for the Guardian Court. Given the girl's tender age, the principles of hizanat and nothing showing the mother unsuitable, provisional…
Article 199 cannot be used as a second maintenance appeal
Jawad Ahmed v. Mst. Salma and others
Issue: Can a husband use the High Court's constitutional jurisdiction to reopen past and iddat maintenance already decided by the Family Court and…
Held: No. Article 199 is supervisory, not a second appeal; it is confined to patent illegality, jurisdictional defect, perversity or material misreading or non-reading of evidence causing a miscarriage of justice. As the husband only sought a fresh assessment of the…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.14, Family Courts Act 1964
A Family Court can find oral talaq was pronounced without a Union Council certificate; Column 17 gold is the bride’s
Mst. Hoor Hifza v. Additional District Judge etc.
Issue: Can a Family Court find that oral talaq was pronounced although no notice went to the Union Council; can dower payable on…
Held: Yes, no, and yes. Whether talaq was pronounced is a question of fact, distinct from whether it has become legally effective under section 7; the wife's evidence, corroborated by her sister, was not shaken, and a missing effectiveness certificate cannot…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.5, Family Courts Act 1964s.7, Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961
A child’s preference must be heard, but within the whole welfare inquiry
Kashif Mehmood v. Saadia Fida etc.
Issue: How much weight should a court give a child's own preference in a custody case?
Held: A child capable of forming an intelligent preference must be meaningfully heard, but that preference is weighed with the child's existing care, education, stability and overall welfare rather than treated as a binding or isolated choice. Maternal custody and the…
s.17, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
To recover gold, the wife must prove the husband’s side kept it, not only that it was given
Mohsin Ali v. Mst. Sidra Bibi, etc.
Issue: Can a decree for six tolas of gold ornaments stand on proof, or an apparent admission, that gold was given to the…
Held: No. Giving the ornaments and their later snatching or retention are separate facts, each needing proof. A suggestion put to and denied by the husband's witness is not an admission; and the husband's failure to prove he was away from…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Family Courts Act 1964
An attorney’s residence cannot give a Family Court territorial jurisdiction
Muhammad Mushtaq and another v. Sidra Riaz, etc.
Issue: Can a woman living in Italy sue her former husband for maintenance and dowry in the Family Court where her attorney lives,…
Held: No. A wife may sue through an attorney, but Rule 6 gives jurisdiction only where the cause of action arose, where the parties reside or last resided together, or, in suits for dissolution or dower, where the wife ordinarily resides;…
r.6, Family Courts Rules 1965s.25-A, Family Courts Act 1964s.5, Family Courts Act 1964s.7(2), Family Courts Act 1964
Structured overnight visitation: a practical Sindh High Court model
Aijaz-ur-Rehman v. Mst. Naila and others
Issue: What contact should a father have with a seven-to-eight-year-old daughter in her mother's custody, where the courts below allowed only two three-hour…
Held: Drawing on the eleven conditions in Madiha Younus v. Imran Ahmed (2018 SCMR 1991), so far as the mother agreed, the Court kept custody with the mother but gave the father an overnight stay on the first Saturday of every…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.7, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
Dowry delivery must be proved; custom and purchase receipts are not enough
Farrukh Altaf v. Mst. Sadia Anam etc.
Issue: Can the custom of giving dowry, an itemised inventory and purchase receipts prove that particular dowry articles were delivered to the husband's…
Held: No, not by themselves. Section 17 relaxes the rules of proof but does not dispense with proof: credible oral evidence can establish a dowry claim without receipts, but the court must still find that the particular articles were delivered. Here…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Family Courts Act 1964
Before accepting Khulla, the court must explain what the wife gives up
Adeena Naz v. Judge Family Court/Guardian Judge Lahore, etc.
Issue: Where a wife sued for dissolution on cruelty and non-maintenance, then stated in court that she wanted Khula and would return her…
Held: Not without more. Her statement was an express request for Khula, so this was not a case of the court imposing Khula, but the court still had to ensure her election was informed and voluntary. Because the record did not…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.5, Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939
Supreme Court: a statutory dissolution claim cannot be turned into khula without the wife’s consent (shiqaq)
Mst. Zainab Bibi v. Muhammad Waseem and others; Mst. Iram Naz Begum v. Fazal Khaliq and others
Issue: When a wife sues for dissolution on the ground of cruelty and cruelty is not proved, can the Family Court grant khula…
Held: No. Converting a claim for statutory dissolution into khula without the wife's clear and voluntary election is an error of law. On the record, the Supreme Court sustained the dissolutions on the different ground of shiqaq under section 2(ix) of…
Art. 14, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 25, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 4, Constitution of Pakistan 1973
A prompt-dower entry proves the promise, not that payment was made
Mst. Amna Shaikh v. Imran Ahmed Shaikh and another
Issue: On khula, must a wife return dower that the Nikahnama records as prompt but which the husband cannot prove he paid; and…
Held: No. A Nikahnama entry that dower is prompt proves the obligation, not its payment; the husband who pleads payment must prove it, and the proviso to section 10(4) of the Family Courts Act requires restoration only of dower 'received by…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961s.10(4), Family Courts Act 1964s.14(2)(a), Family Courts Act 1964
Parents cannot bargain away a child’s independent right to maintenance
Mst. Shazia Naureen, etc. v. District Judge, etc.
Issue: Can a mother, as guardian, agree to reduced maintenance for her children, and can a Family Court fix the children's maintenance solely…
Held: No to both. A child's right to maintenance belongs to the child, not the parent; a guardian cannot waive, reduce or surrender it, and any agreement doing so is void against the minor. A compromise on a minor's behalf needs…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973O.XXXII, Code of Civil Procedure 1908s.17, Family Courts Act 1964
Supreme Court: Nikahnama columns 13–16 must be read together when deciding dower
Mst. Farwa Noreen v. Hassan Ali Agha and others
Issue: How should courts read the dower entries in a Nikahnama (columns 13 to 16), what is the Nikahnama's legal status, and what…
Held: Deciding questions of law only, the Court held that columns 13 to 16 are complementary and together record the total dower agreed; that the Nikahnama is the official record and primary, but rebuttable, evidence of a marriage already concluded, not…
Art. 102, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984Art. 103, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984Art. 105, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984Art. 129, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984
A father’s physical custody is not, by itself, illegal detention
Mst. Tania Javed v. Province of Sindh and others
Issue: Can a mother recover her young children from their father through a High Court petition alleging that he is illegally detaining them?
Held: No. The father is the children's admitted father, and his keeping them, in the absence of any court order declaring his custody unlawful, cannot by itself be called illegal detention warranting constitutional relief. Which parent should have custody, considering the…
Prove limited means with records before challenging interim maintenance
Sakib Ali Mahesar v. Faria Khan Laghari and others
Issue: Can a father use Article 199 to overturn interim child maintenance of Rs. 150,000 a month by saying his income is only…
Held: No. Interim maintenance orders are not open to appeal or revision, so Article 199 is available only for lack of jurisdiction, mala fides or patent illegality, none of which was shown. The mother produced documents showing a petrol pump, agricultural…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.14(3), Family Courts Act 1964s.17-A, Family Courts Act 1964
A maintenance compromise can cover higher school expenses without a fresh suit
Mohammad Faizan Ghani v. Mst. Anushay Akbar and others
Issue: Where a compromise decree requires the father to pay Rs. 50,000 a month and also 'all expenses' of the children's education, can…
Held: She can recover them in execution. The decree had two terms: the fixed monthly amount and all the children's educational and necessary expenses. Claiming documented, increased expenses under that second term was within the decree, and the Family Court may…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.5, Family Courts Act 1964s.7, Family Courts Act 1964
A wife may notify the Union Council of a talaq her husband has already pronounced
Raheel Ahmad v. Tayyaba Haq, etc.
Landmark judgment
Issue: Is a divorce-effectiveness certificate invalid because the wife, not the husband, brought his emailed talaq to the Union Council's notice; and could…
Held: No, the certificate stands. Section 7 puts the duty to notify the Chairman on the husband, but nothing in it stops the wife from reporting a talaq already pronounced and communicated; her intimation does not relieve him of his duty…
Art. 14, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 25, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 34, Constitution of Pakistan 1973
Military pension can be attached to enforce a final child-maintenance decree
Muhammad Latif v. Addl. District Judge, Jaranwala etc.
Issue: Can the pension of a retired Army official be attached to enforce a final Family Court decree for his children's maintenance, despite…
Held: Yes. Section 11 of the Pensions Act protects pensions from attachment 'at the instance of a creditor', but minor children enforcing their father's duty to maintain them are not creditors and the liability is not an ordinary debt. Section 171…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.11, Pensions Act 1871s.13, Family Courts Act 1964s.17, Family Courts Act 1964
A khula decree is final, but a disputed return of dower needs findings and can be appealed
Farhan Ahmed Bhatti v. Additional District Judge and others
Issue: When a Family Court grants khula and orders the wife to return dower only 'if any she received', without deciding the husband's…
Held: Yes. The dissolution by khula itself is final and not appealable, but the wife's liability to return dower or other benefits on khula must be decided by the Family Court, and an appeal lies on that question. The appellate court…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10(4), Family Courts Act 1964s.14(2)(a), Family Courts Act 1964
A wife’s ‘ordinary residence’ decides Family Court jurisdiction; permanent residence is not needed
Mst. Shagufta Bibi v. Additional District Judge, Jahanian and others
Issue: Could an appellate court throw out a wife's whole family suit (khula, maintenance and dowry) for lack of territorial jurisdiction because she…
Held: No. Under the proviso to Rule 6, the Family Court where the wife 'ordinarily resides' has jurisdiction in a suit for dissolution, and 'ordinarily resides' does not mean permanent or long residence: the court must decide from all the evidence…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973r.5, Family Courts Rules 1965r.6, Family Courts Rules 1965s.5, Family Courts Act 1964
A child’s ‘consent’ cannot legitimise a child marriage: police must act and the girl is protected
Muhammad Aslam v. Addl. Sessions Judge/Ex-Officio Justice of Peace etc.
Issue: Was a Justice of Peace right to refuse a father's application for a criminal case over his daughter's alleged marriage below 18,…
Held: No. A NADRA child registration certificate gave her date of birth as 1 March 2011, so she was prima facie about fifteen at the Nikah on 18 May 2026, after the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2026 came into force.…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.13, Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2026s.154, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898s.22-A, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898
Children taken by force are returned to the mother pending the Guardian Court
Naseem Bibi v. Addl. Sessions Judge Sheikhupura and four others
Issue: Can a Sessions Judge refuse a mother's section 491 petition only because her children (about 16, 11 and 9) are not of…
Held: No. Section 491 also covers custody that is 'improper', and the remedy is not barred because the Guardian Court is available. The mother came to court at once alleging the father had forcibly taken the children from her on 20…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.491, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898
Family cases must move fast: the court orders reports on suits pending over six months
Muhammad Iqbal Afzal v. Judge Family Court, etc.
Issue: Was the Family Court right to close a defendant husband's evidence after repeated warnings, in a khula, dowry and maintenance suit pending…
Held: Yes. The order sheets showed clear warnings and a last chance, and repeated dilatory tactics; fair hearing means a reasonable opportunity, not endless adjournments. The petition was dismissed and the Family Court directed to finish the case day to day…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.12-A, Family Courts Act 1964s.17, Family Courts Act 1964
Cruelty proved: dower stays in full, even after the Shariat Court ruling on section 10(5)
Arslan v. Nisha Shahid etc.
Issue: After the Federal Shariat Court declared section 10(5) and (6) of the Family Courts Act repugnant to Islam (PLD 2022 FSC 25),…
Held: Yes, the Family Court still decides dower on the facts of each case; the Shariat Court removed the fixed surrender formula, not that power. A decree is not Khula just because the word appears in the papers. Where the wife…
Art. 189, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Family Courts Act 1964s.2, Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939
Section 10(5) still applies while the appeal against the Shariat Court ruling is pending
Mst. Azka Afreen v. Hafiz Umar Yaseen and another
Issue: In a Khula decree where the marriage was never consummated, is the wife entitled to her dower, and must she surrender part…
Held: She is entitled to it, less 25%. The dower of fifteen tola of gold (five paid at the Nikah) plus one kanal of land with a house was marked 'on demand' and so was prompt; the husband's claim that the…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 203D, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 203F, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Family Courts Act 1964