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Judgments on Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973 (2025)
Pakistani court judgments that consider Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973, summarised in plain English, newest first. Each gives the issue, what the court held and what it means in practice, and is reviewed by an advocate.
16 judgments
A wife’s withdrawal of dower and maintenance claims can be recalled if she lacked independent advice
Asif Iqbal v. Additional District Judge etc.
Issue: Can a wife who withdrew her suit for dower, dowry and maintenance in court, without her own lawyer or independent advice, have…
Held: Yes. Statements recorded in court are ordinarily treated as conclusive, but the rule is not absolute: the court must examine whether the act was truly voluntary and free from undue influence or fraud. Here she came to court with only…
Khula can be granted while a suit challenging the Nikahnama is pending
Muhammad Irfan v. Judge Family Court, etc.
Issue: Must a Khula suit wait because the husband says the marriage was void, as the wife had earlier marriages that were never…
Held: No. The marriage was admitted and the husband produced no documents or evidence that any earlier marriage was subsisting; a bare assertion cannot displace the presumption of validity of an admitted marriage. A pending declaratory suit against the Nikahnama does…
A vague Talaqnama does not prove a family decree was satisfied
Ejaz-ur-Rehman v. Additional District Judge etc.
Issue: In execution of a decree for dower, dowry and maintenance, can the husband have his arrest warrants cancelled by relying on a…
Held: No. Apart from the mutual consent to divorce, the Talaqnama's terms were vague: it recorded no amount, no alternative payment for the dowry and no mode of satisfying the decree, and the husband's own objection petition said her entitlements would…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.47, Code of Civil Procedure 1908
A property transfer soon after marriage, with no sign of payment, can discharge dower
Tanveer Ahmed v. District Judge, Rahim Yar Khan, etc.
Issue: Was four marlas of land, mutated to the wife as an 'oral sale' from her father-in-law within a month of the marriage,…
Held: Payment of dower. The husband bought the land from his father and had it mutated directly to his wife within a month of the marriage, with no consideration from her; she admitted in cross-examination that her husband had transferred the…
Art. 129, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973
Supreme Court: cruelty need not be physical, and a cruelty case cannot be turned into khula
Dr. Seema Hanif Khan v. Waqas Khan and others
Issue: Can a Family Court grant khula of its own accord to a wife who sued for dissolution on statutory grounds, and what…
Held: No court may grant khula without the wife's clear consent; filing a suit for dissolution is not a request for khula. Grounds under the 1939 Act are proved on the balance of probabilities, and cruelty, which may be mental and…
Art. 14, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 25, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 35, Constitution of Pakistan 1973
A husband who ignored a Khula and maintenance suit cannot use section 12(2) or a writ to undo the ex parte decree
Muhammad Sohail v. Mst. Ambreen Jamal and others
Issue: Can a husband who was served by bailiff, courier, pasting and publication, was debarred from filing a written statement and did not…
Held: No. The service reports disproved his claim of non-service; under section 12(2) he had to plead and prove fraud, misrepresentation or lack of jurisdiction, and he produced no credible material. Both courts below concurrently rejected his application, revision under section…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.115, Code of Civil Procedure 1908s.12(2), Code of Civil Procedure 1908
A house recorded as dower in the Nikahnama is owed, despite a ‘sale’ between the couple before the Nikah
Mst. Saima Rani v. Addl. District Judge, etc.
Issue: Can the dower entry in a registered Nikahnama (a five-marla house in Column 16) be set aside on the assumption that a…
Held: No. The registered Nikahnama carries a presumption of truth; it recorded the house as dower with no note that it had already been paid. The husband never pleaded that the earlier sale discharged the dower; his written statement said no…
Full dower once Nikah and consummation are proved; a house’s value is assessed at today’s market price
Benish Ghaffar v. Additional District Judge and 2 others (with connected petitions)
Issue: Where a husband denied the marriage altogether but the registered Nikah was proved, could the courts below award only half the dower…
Held: No. Once the Nikah was proved through the Nikah Khawan and the Union Council Secretary and the husband's denial failed, consummation was a private matter that needed no further proof, no issue had been framed on it, and the later…
Art. 128, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973
A wife who says she was orally divorced cannot later claim the marriage continues for lack of a certificate
Nusrat Sadiq v. Nadeem Asghar etc.
Issue: Where the wife herself pleaded that her husband pronounced talaq three times by telephone, and he admitted it, does her maintenance run…
Held: No. Her own plaint asserted the divorce and claimed deferred dower on that basis, and the husband admitted it in his written statement filed through his attorney; admitted facts need not be proved, and a husband may plead and depose…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.7, Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961
A former aunt by marriage cannot keep a child from the real mother
Mst. Nayyab Abbas v. Additional District Judge, etc.
Issue: Can a woman who raised a child under an 'adoption deed' made in favour of her then husband, the child's uncle, keep…
Held: No. The father had handed the child to the uncle under an 'adoption deed' of 7 November 2020 without the mother's consent, and the deed was in the uncle's favour alone; the uncle, now divorced from the petitioner, conceded the…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
Gold dower left out of the decree sheet by mistake can still be enforced
Afzal Hussain v. Mst. Irshad Bibi etc.
Issue: Could the appellate court, on the husband's own appeal, direct that one tola of gold dower be added to the decree, where…
Held: Yes. The trial court had held the wife entitled to one tola of gold and a 10-marla house as dower but left the gold out of the relief paragraph and the decree sheet. That was a procedural error, and since…
A mother’s remarriage does not by itself cost her custody
Nazia Saddique v. Additional District Judge, etc.
Issue: Should a ten-year-old who had always lived with his mother be moved to his father because she remarried and depends financially on…
Held: No. A mother's remarriage may lead to loss of custody, but it is not an absolute rule; the welfare of the child is paramount, and moving a boy who had lived with his mother all his life would likely cause…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
The paternal grandfather can be joined in a maintenance suit, but his liability comes second
Nizam ud Din v. Additional District Judge etc.
Issue: Can the minors' paternal grandfather be added as a defendant at the appeal stage of their maintenance suit, while the father is…
Held: Yes. The father must maintain his children first; if he cannot, the duty may pass to the mother and, if she too is poor, to the paternal grandfather in easy circumstances (paragraph 370 of Mulla's Muhammadan Law). Following Bashir Ahmad…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973O.I r.10, Code of Civil Procedure 1908
Parents who lent a child to relatives can take her back
Nazir Ahmad etc. v. The learned Additional District Judge, Kasur etc.
Issue: Can a maternal uncle and aunt who were given temporary custody of one of twin girls, on condition that they return her…
Held: No. The parents' status as the girl's real parents was admitted, and admitted facts need no proof. However good the care the uncle and aunt provided, adoptive carers are not a substitute for the parents, and the welfare of the…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
A child ‘adopted’ at birth goes back to the real mother; the court asks for an adoption law
Erum Shahzadi & another v. Additional District Judge, Sialkot & 4 others
Issue: Can relatives who took a newborn on the day of his birth and registered him as their own son keep him against…
Held: No. Adoption is permitted in Islamic law, but the real parents have a preferential right to custody unless the child's welfare demands otherwise, and there was no justification for this adoption beyond the relatives' wish for a son. No written…
Habeas corpus will not decide custody when the Guardian Court is already seized
Hamna Fahad v. CCPO, Lahore etc.
Issue: Should the High Court return two children to their mother in habeas proceedings after the father allegedly took them from her at…
Held: No. In the precedents the mother relied on, the child was a suckling baby or had been removed by deception from the mother's custody; here both parents had lived with the children in Dubai, and whether the mother left or…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.7, Guardians and Wards Act 1890