Showing 1–30 of 31 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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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, Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961
A husband cannot sue to take back bridal gifts: they belong to the wife
Simra Arif v. Additional District Judge, Lahore & 2 others
Issue: After divorcing his wife, can a husband sue in the Family Court for the return of gold ornaments and a diamond ring…
Held: No. Item 9 of the Schedule gives the Family Court jurisdiction over the personal property and belongings of a wife and of a child living with the mother, not of a husband. Following Muhammad Sajid v. Shamsa Asghar (PLD 2025…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.2, Dowry and Bridal Gifts (Restriction) Act 1976s.5, Family Courts Act 1964
A late challenge cannot stall execution of a family decree that is over ten years old
Pathani Mai v. District Judge, Lodhran, etc.
Issue: Can a person to whom a husband transferred land in 2009, after his wife sued him for dower and maintenance, challenge more…
Held: No. The petition was barred by laches: it came more than a year and five months after the 2024 mutation with no explanation. On the merits, the wife's suit for dower and maintenance was filed on 13 July 2009, before…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.12-A, Family Courts Act 1964s.14, Family Courts Act 1964
Maintenance of Rs 5,000 a month or less cannot be appealed, or challenged by writ instead
Nazir Ahmad v. Judge Family Court, Khairpur Tamewali etc.
Issue: Can a grandfather ordered to pay Rs 3,500 a month for each of two grandchildren, while their father lives abroad and does…
Held: No. The father had moved to Saudi Arabia and was not maintaining the children, and the grandfather's own evidence showed he was financially sound (he owns grain-grinding machines) and closely associated with his son; where the father absents himself, an…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.14, Family Courts Act 1964
Missing section 342 statement: remand, not automatic acquittal
Noor Ahmad v. The State, etc.
Issue: If the trial court never recorded the accused's statement under section 342 Cr.P.C., must the appellate court acquit him, or can it…
Held: The appellate court can send the case back. Failing to examine the accused under section 342 Cr.P.C. vitiates the conviction as recorded, but acquittal is not automatic: section 423 Cr.P.C. lets the appellate court order a retrial from the stage…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.20, Family Courts Act 1964s.262, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898s.263, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898
Sindh: in Khula the wife returns dower she received, as the Nikahnama shows
Amna Jatoi v. Jahanzeb
Issue: Was a Khula decree rightly made subject to the wife returning 30 tola of gold recorded in the Nikahnama as dower paid…
Held: Yes. She never pleaded that the Nikahnama entries were wrong or that she signed blank papers; it was for her to prove that dower recorded as fully paid was not paid, and she led no evidence and did not call…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 35, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Family Courts Act 1964
In children’s maintenance the court must find the facts itself, including who should pay
Muhammad Saeed v. Judge Family Court, etc.
Issue: Could a paternal uncle be held liable to maintain his late brother's child, where the suit was brought against the grandfather, who…
Held: The decree was set aside and the appeal sent back. Nothing in sections 5 and 17-A or the Schedule of the Family Courts Act confines liability for a child's maintenance to the father; who the defendant should be depends on…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17-A, Family Courts Act 1964s.5, Family Courts Act 1964
No second appeal in family cases, but the High Court can still fix a workable visitation schedule
Shafqat Ali v. Mst. Rimsha (and connected petitions)
Issue: After a Family Court decree and one appeal on Khula, dower, maintenance and dowry, and one guardianship appeal, can the High Court…
Held: Not as a second appeal. The Family Courts Act gives no second appeal and the Guardians and Wards Act allows one, which both sides had used; re-appraising evidence in writ jurisdiction would substitute a second appeal (following 2023 SCMR 1434…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Family Courts Act 1964s.47, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
Foreign maintenance orders: avoiding a duplicate child-maintenance claim in Pakistan
Muhammad Muneeb Arshad v. Mst. Ammara Mahroof and others
Issue: Where an Irish court has already fixed a child's maintenance and the father is paying it, can a Pakistani Family Court run…
Held: No, on these facts. Living abroad does not by itself oust a Pakistani Family Court's jurisdiction under Rule 6, but where a competent foreign court has fixed the child's maintenance and it is being paid, the same claim cannot run…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973r.6, Family Courts Rules 1965s.10, Code of Civil Procedure 1908s.11, Code of Civil Procedure 1908
Failed reconciliation does not mean Khula must follow: the wife’s real wish decides
Muhammad Kora v. Judge Family Court, Multan, etc.
Issue: Must a Family Court dissolve a marriage by Khula whenever pre-trial reconciliation fails, even though the wife has not said she wants…
Held: No. Section 10 obliges the Family Court to make a genuine attempt at reconciliation and, if it fails, empowers it to dissolve the marriage, but it does not require a Khula decree in every case where reconciliation is declared failed;…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 35, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Family Courts Act 1964
Gold ornaments claimed as dowry need strong proof; an affidavit of uncertain origin is not enough
Abdul Jabbar v. Mst. Saba Kausar, etc.
Issue: Could a decree for gold ornaments (a bracelet, two rings and a 3-tola necklace) claimed as dowry stand, where the courts below…
Held: No. A bride ordinarily keeps her gold ornaments, so a wife claiming them from the husband must plead and prove how he came to take them, whether during good relations or by snatching; section 7(2) of the Family Courts Act…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973Art. 2, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984s.7, Family Courts Act 1964
A dowry claim joined to a maintenance and dower suit stays in the court where the wife lives
Muhammad Ahmad Tariq v. Judge Family Court, D.G. Khan, etc.
Issue: Where a wife sues in the place she ordinarily resides for maintenance, dower and dowry articles, without asking for dissolution, can the…
Held: No. Rule 6 allows a suit for dissolution or dower to be filed where the wife ordinarily resides, and the proviso to section 7(2) of the Family Courts Act, which lets a dissolution plaint include dowry, maintenance, dower and other…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973r.6, Family Courts Rules 1965s.7, Family Courts Act 1964