Dower judgments: Pakistani family law case summaries (2025)
Pakistani court judgments on dower, 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.
Our guide: Haq Mehr (dower) in Pakistan
7 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…
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 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
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…